FIRST LOOK: Targeting Vascular Calcification to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease

Vascular calcification is the abnormal deposition of calcium phosphate crystals within the blood vessel wall, is one of the strongest risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and predicts clinical events such as myocardial infarction and stroke.  The following approaches are being utilized in our laboratory to target vascular calcification: Human Genetics: Approximately 50% of cardiovascular disease…

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Nanotechnologies for Cardiac Diagnosis and Treatment

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Weighing in at a little less than three-quarters of a pound, the heart has the formidable task of pumping oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood through the 60,000-mile highway of blood vessels to all the tissues of the body. Unfortunately, more than 15 million Americans suffer from coronary artery disease, which occurs when the arteries that carry…

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Finding Cancer Therapies Without Cardiotoxicity

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Lasting cardiac damage from cancer therapy can be devastating. Thanks to powerful new therapies, many people are surviving cancers that were once believed to be fatal. We are now seeing, however, that the off-target effects of these cancer therapies can have deadly repercussions, such as heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, thrombosis, heart attack, severe hypertension, Q-T…

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Finding Cancer Therapies Without Cardiotoxicity

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Lasting cardiac damage from cancer therapy can be devastating. Thanks to powerful new therapies, many people are surviving cancers that were once believed to be fatal. We are now seeing, however, that the off-target effects of these cancer therapies can have deadly repercussions, such as heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, thrombosis, heart attack, severe hypertension, Q-T…

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FIRST LOOK: New Approaches to Controlling Stem Cell Fate

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Embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be propagated indefinitely in culture in an undifferentiated state or induced to differentiate into every cell type in the adult body, holds promise for regenerative medicine. Proper execution of these distinct but developmentally relevant programs requires precise tuning of gene expression by transcription factors. Indeed,…

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Quantitative Molecular Imaging for Cardiovascular Phenotypes

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More than 17 million deaths worldwide were attributed to heart disease in 2016, and cardiovascular ailments persistently remain one of the biggest causes of hospital admissions in the United States. Cardiovascular disease also accounts for more healthcare costs than any other chronic illness, and is responsible for one out of every three deaths, on average.…

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Quantitative Molecular Imaging for Cardiovascular Phenotypes

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More than 17 million deaths worldwide were attributed to heart disease in 2016, and cardiovascular ailments persistently remain one of the biggest causes of hospital admissions in the United States. Cardiovascular disease also accounts for more healthcare costs than any other chronic illness, and is responsible for one out of every three deaths, on average.…

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FIRST LOOK: Using Zebrafish to Understand and Harness Cardiac Regeneration

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The adult mammalian heart lacks any appreciable capacity to regenerate ischemia-damaged muscle. By comparison, injured zebrafish hearts mount an impressive regenerative response driven by robust myocardial proliferation. My laboratory’s research program is driven by the simple assumption that a complete understanding of cardiomyocyte proliferation regulatory mechanisms in zebrafish could be leveraged to promote heart regeneration…

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FIRST LOOK: Using Zebrafish to Understand and Harness Cardiac Regeneration

zebra

The adult mammalian heart lacks any appreciable capacity to regenerate ischemia-damaged muscle. By comparison, injured zebrafish hearts mount an impressive regenerative response driven by robust myocardial proliferation. My laboratory’s research program is driven by the simple assumption that a complete understanding of cardiomyocyte proliferation regulatory mechanisms in zebrafish could be leveraged to promote heart regeneration…

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FIRST LOOK: Novel Target Discovery Pipeline for Calcific Aortic Valve Disease

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Aortic stenosis due to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most prevalent valvular disorder and is on the rise as the population ages. Left untreated CAVD has a dismal prognosis, inevitably leading to death. Annually, in the US alone, 80,000 patients progress to severe CAVD, requiring aortic valve intervention and at a cost of…

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FIRST LOOK: Novel Target Discovery Pipeline for Calcific Aortic Valve Disease

blog

Aortic stenosis due to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is the most prevalent valvular disorder and is on the rise as the population ages. Left untreated CAVD has a dismal prognosis, inevitably leading to death. Annually, in the US alone, 80,000 patients progress to severe CAVD, requiring aortic valve intervention and at a cost of…

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FIRST LOOK: Stratifying Exercise Dysfunction

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Exercise dysfunction is highly prevalent across the global spectrum of medical diseases, and is a principal cause of morbidity and increased healthcare cost burden. Abnormalities in multiple organ systems often underlie exercise dysfunction. However, current methods for analyzing exercise test results often rely on a narrow subset of variables involving a single organ system. This…

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