Ionic calcium, Ca2+, underpins many of the vital functions undertaken by the cells of the cardiovascular system. Understanding how the level of Ca2+ is regulated by the complex intracellular machinery within cells is the basis for understanding normal physiological control of conduction and coordination of contraction throughout the cardiac cycle of the beating heart.

Our studies reveal that intracellular Ca2+ signalling systems show universal patterns of behaviour that become apparent whether studying a single cellular element of the heart or as a highly complex well organised system in an integrated array of cells. Results obtained in our laboratory predict that such behaviour is critical to a normal physiology and that perturbations of these signalling systems may trigger pathological situations.