Professor
School of Medicine and Public Health | Department of Neuroscience
Hometown: Libby, Montana
Gail Robertson is a professor and scientist at UW-Madison who studies how the heart’s rhythm is controlled at the molecular level. Her early research led to the discovery of a gene (hERG) that plays a critical role in preventing dangerous heart rhythms. That discovery shaped how new drugs are tested for safety and has saved lives around the world. Today, her lab is uncovering surprising ways that heart cells coordinate their activity, not just at the level of proteins, but at the level of RNA, the blueprints our bodies use to build them. Her work has implications for new treatments for cardiac arrhythmias and other diseases as well, including epilepsy and cancer.
Talks:
What Keeps the Heart in Rhythm? A Story of Genes, Safety, and Discovery
Every heartbeat depends on a precise electrical rhythm, and that rhythm is shaped by proteins called ion channels. Dr. Gail Robertson shares how her discovery that the hERG gene produces a key ion channel in the heart helped explain catastrophic arrhythmias and led to a now-standard drug safety test used worldwide. Her story highlights how basic science in Wisconsin has global impact, protecting patients from life-threatening heart conditions.
The Hidden Conversations That Keep Your Heart in Sync
Imagine if your body’s blueprints could “talk” to each other while building the tools they need. That’s exactly what Dr. Robertson has discovered: certain heart genes actually pair up while making proteins, coordinating their production to keep the heartbeat steady. This surprising finding opens a whole new window into how cells maintain balance, and how we might fix it when things go wrong. It also has implications far beyond cardiovascular health: similar blueprint partnerships may shape how the brain signals, how tumors grow, or how cells respond to infection. This talk reveals a new frontier in understanding and eventually treating a wide range of diseases.
From the Lab to the Living Room: How UW Research Impacts Everyday Health
Many people don’t realize how discoveries in university labs directly improve our health. In this talk, Gail Robertson shares how her lab’s work – starting with fruit flies and heart cells – has helped create tools used pharmaceutical companies to keep drugs safe and new ways of thinking about heart disease. It’s science with a heart, right here in Wisconsin.