# First person – Rebeca Piñeiro-Sabarís

## TL;DR

This paper discusses a study on how faulty GATA6–CXCR7 signaling causes bicuspid aortic valve defects, a type of heart condition.

## Contribution

The study identifies a novel signaling pathway involving GATA6 and CXCR7 in the development of bicuspid aortic valve defects.

## Key findings

- Deficient GATA6–CXCR7 signaling was found to lead to bicuspid aortic valve formation.
- The research highlights the genetic and molecular mechanisms behind this congenital heart defect.

## Abstract

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Rebeca Piñeiro-Sabarís is first author on ‘
Deficient GATA6–CXCR7 signaling leads to bicuspid aortic valve’, published in DMM. Rebeca is a postdoc in the lab of José Luis de la Pompa at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Madrid, Spain, investigating the genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying congenital heart defects.