Francisco Galdos graduated in 2015 from Harvard University with a degree in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology. His undergraduate honors thesis focused on identifying extracellular matrix components responsible for maintaining pancreatic beta cell function and maturity. Currently, he is an MD/Ph.D. student in the Stanford Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). He is passionate about pursuing a career researching and treating children with congenital heart disease, which guided his decision to join Sean Wu’s lab. In the Wu lab, Francisco works on developing human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) models of congenital heart disease to understand the genetics behind cardiac defects. He hopes to combine the fields of stem cell biology and tissue engineering to provide novel ways to understand cardiac development in both normal and disease settings.