Professor Emilia Entcheva directs the Cardiac Optogenetics and Optical Imaging Laboratory at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, George Washington University. Her research group combines biophotonics tools with human stem-cell-derived cardiomyocyte technology and gene editing approaches to aid the advancement of personalized medicine. The lab played a key role in the development of cardiac optogenetics, combining experimental and computational tools. They have implemented highly parallel platforms for interrogation of cardiac function using human stem-cell derived cardiomyocytes. Recent work combines all-optical cardiac electrophysiology, on-demand oxygenation with perfluorocarbons, microfluidics, optical instrumentation and control, and transcriptomics analysis to help improve the maturity of engineered human heart tissues and their use in drug-screening applications. Professor Entcheva is an AIMBE Fellow and her work is supported by the NSF and NIH.