Sarah Dalgas Nissen
PhD student, DVM.
Research Profile
Equine medicine has always been one of my greatest interests and was therefore my main focus when I studied Veterinary? Medicine. I became involved in equine cardiology when I wrote my master thesis working with the Equine Cardiac Group. We studied the efficacy and safety of a new treatment of atrial fibrillation using the horse as a large animal model. I immediately became fascinated about the extreme capacities of the equine heart and the importance of understanding the mechanisms of complex diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias.
In September 2018 I was granted a PhD Faculty Scholarship. My work as a PhD student now focuses on training induced remodeling of the heart. The horse is by nature an athletic animal and provides a very unique model, in which the formation of “the athletic heart” can be explored. Currently I focus on the molecular nature and changes induced by long-term training in the conduction system of the heart. The work include several in vivo electrophysiological measurements combined with ex vivo analysis of the protein expression of key ion channels maintaining normal conduction through the sinoatrial node and the atrioventricular node.
Hopefully, my work will increase our understanding of the conduction system of both horses and humans and help us to prevent the cardiac arrhythmias which are believed to be induced by high intensity training.
Sarah Dalgas Nissen
