Center for Cardiovascular Biology
Future Areas of Investigation
• Identifying novel targets for therapy designed for the pediatric cardiac patient through basic science studies of cardiac development and heart failure.
• Utilize the large cohort of congenital heart patients seen at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for prospective studies to optimize surgical methods and timing of repair of heart defects to improve outcomes.
• Improve the quality of life of children with congenital heart disease through understanding and ameliorating injury that occurs at the time of surgical repair.
• Continued investigation of the role of transcription factor mutations in the development of single ventricle heart disease.
• A collaboration has been developed between the genetics group, Dr. Mary Wagner of Cardiac Development, and Dr. William Borders, Director of the Sibley Heart Center echocardiography group. We will investigate the role of polymorphisms in the renin-angiotensin system, adrenergic system, and vasomotor control agents in ventricular dysfunction assessed in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome on prenatal echocardiography, postnatal echocardiography, and isolated tissue-strip and isolated myocyte assays. Our hypothesis is that a sub-population of the hypoplastic left heart syndrome patients are genetically predisposed to early ventricular dysfunction, which will be identifiable on prenatal and postnatal echo studies as well as on isolated myocytes and myocardial strips harvested at the time of the first operation on these children.
• Cardiac transplant patients have a propensity to develop renal dysfunction and hypertension over time. A highly significant correlation has been shown between two TGF-ß polymorphisms and end-stage renal disease in adult heart transplant patients. We have collected peripheral blood samples on 65 children who have previously undergone heart transplantation. We will investigate the role of these TGF-ß polymorphisms on the development of renal dysfunction and hypertension in the pediatric transplant population.
• A multi-institutional study within the Neuroprotection theme, as mentioned above, to investigate candidate genes for white matter injury in the hypoplastic left heart population and compare effects of different surgical methods on neuronal development.
• Investigations into the role of cardiac stem cells in normal and abnormal cardiac development and the potential role of these stem cells in regenerating heart tissue.
• Investigations on ways in which the pathological hypertrophy which occurs in many forms of congenital heart disease leads to heart failure and how this heart failure can be prevented and treated.
Quick Links
Centers
- Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center
- Atlanta Pediatric Device Consortium
- Center for Cardiovascular Biology
- Center for Clinical and Translational Research
- Center for Cystic Fibrosis Research
- Center for Developmental Lung Biology
- Center for Drug Discovery
- Center for Pediatric Innovation
- Center for Pediatric Nanomedicine
- Center for Transplantation and Immune-mediated Disorders
- Children’s Center for Immunology and Vaccines
- Children’s Center for Neurosciences Research
- Clinical Outcomes Research & Public Health
- Institute for People and Technology (IPaT)
- Marcus Autism Center
Cores
- Animal Physiology Core
- Biomarkers Core
- Biorepository
- Biostatistics Core
- Cardiovascular Imaging Research Core (CIRC)
- Career Development-Atlanta Pediatric Scholars Program
- CF Discovery Core
- CF Mouse Model Core
- Flow Cytometry Core
- General Equipment & Specimen Processing Core
- Grant Editing and Manuscript Support (GEMS) Core
- Immunology Core
- Informatics Core
- Integrated Cellular Imaging Core
- Radiology Core
