American Heart Association Archives - Sanford Burnham Prebys

Tag: American Heart Association

Institute News

Graduate student awarded American Heart Association Fellowship

AuthorSusan Gammon
Date

April 14, 2021

Katja Birker, PhD

The heart is the core of life, and for PhD graduate student Katja Birker, it’s the foundation for the beginning of a career.

Birker recently received a prestigious predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA) to continue her research on hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart disease that affects between two and four of every 10,000 babies born. As of today, the only cure for HLHS is three open-heart surgeries that begin two weeks after birth.

“I’m very grateful to the AHA for supporting my research,” says Birker. “I’ve embarked on a career to study the genes that contribute to HLHS, and this award will help me continue my work that may eventually lead to targeted prevention of HLHS as well as other congenital heart diseases.”

Birker is collaborating with the Mayo Clinic to identify and test whether genes found in HLHS patients—or “candidate” genes—have similar consequences in the hearts of fruit flies—a model organism for cardiovascular research. The research aims to identify novel gene functions and pathways that are likely to contribute to HLHS.

“Many believe that HLHS is a genetic disease, but the genes that are involved are not well known,” says Birker. “The fruit fly is a very good genetic system to model disease because it has many similar genes to humans and a short life span. I’m able to film videos of fly hearts to understand the impact of the candidate genes on heart function.

“My goal is to find genes that can be used in the future for the diagnosis and treatment of HLHS in babies. The research approach could also be used to screen for genes that might be involved in many other types of heart disease,” adds Birker.

The AHA supports early-career scientists with passion, commitment and focus by providing fellowships that fund their pursuit of cardiovascular research. Birker, a graduate student in the lab of Rolf Bodmer, PhD, professor and director of the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program, received her first AHA fellowship in 2018.

Institute News

5 takeaways from Insights: Heart Disease

AuthorMonica May
Date

February 15, 2019

SBP Insights:Heart Disease

It’s easy to forget about the fist-sized organ in our chest. But the heart is arguably the most important muscle in the body. We can’t live without it, after all. 

To help educate the public about heart health and share the latest scientific advances, this month Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) invited the San Diego community to a free panel discussion focused on the heart. 

More than 70 community members attended the event, whose speakers included cardiologist Anthony N. DeMaria, MD; Jack White, chair in Cardiology, professor of Medicine, founding director, Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center at UC San Diego Health; Donna Marie Robinson, an individual living with heart failure; and heart researcher Karen Ocorr, PhD, assistant professor, Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at SBP. Jennifer Sobotka, executive director at the American Heart Association San Diego, moderated the discussion.

In a special introduction provided by Rolf Bodmer, PhD, director and professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at SBP, he explained that his heart research uses model organisms such as the fruit fly. He quipped, “Which some of you didn’t even know had a heart.” 

The ensuing discussion was robust and insightful. Below are five important takeaways: 

  1. Heart disease is the number-one killer of Americans. Nearly half of American adults have some form of heart or blood vessel disease.
  2. Obesity is an epidemic in America. In the 1960s, approximately 13 percent of American adults were obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Today, that number has tripled to nearly 40 percent. DeMaria illustrated this point with a colored map showing obesity’s prevalence during each decade, which drew gasps from the crowd. 
  3. Know your numbers. Donna Marie was healthy and fit, so she didn’t think that a fainting episode could have been heart disease. “My cardiologist saved my life,” she said. Now, she encourages everyone to “know your numbers, including your cholesterol level and your blood pressure.” 
  4. Rethink swatting that pesky fruit fly. We share 80 percent of disease-causing genes with the tiny insect, including ion channels that keep the heart pumping. For this reason scientists are studying fruit-fly hearts in an effort to learn about the many mysteries of the heart, such as how the rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation (AFib) arises. 
  5. Consider moving to Italy. Just about everyone wants to know which science-backed diet to follow for optimal health. DeMaria explained that the most robust data supports eating a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables and olive oil.

Read the La Jolla Light’s coverage of the event. 

Institute News

5 facts you need to know about atrial fibrillation (AFib)

AuthorMonica May
Date

February 14, 2019

Heart-AFib-Sanford Burnham Prebys

It’s one of the most common heart rhythm disorders and a leading risk factor for stroke, but most people haven’t heard of it—that is, atrial fibrillation, also known as AFib or AF. Below are five facts everyone should know about AFib. 

  1. Nearly 10 percent of people over the age of 65 develop AFib, and it can be deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is estimated that 12.1 million people in the United States will have AFib in 2030. In 2019, AFib was mentioned on 183,321 death certificates and was the underlying cause of death in 26,535 of those deaths.
     
  2. There is no cure. Current treatments include surgery to remove the malfunctioning heart tissue; medications that reduce the risk of stroke by thinning the blood, such as warfarin or other anticoagulants; or medications that slow the heart rate or rhythm. But scientists currently don’t know the cause of AFib. There is no cure. 
     
  3. Increased stroke risk makes AFib lethal. The irregular heartbeats that characterize AFib can cause blood to pool in the heart, and clot. If a blood clot travels to the brain, stroke may occur. About 15 to 20 percent of strokes are due to AFib, according to the American Heart Association.
     
  4. The Apple Watch can detect—but not diagnose—the condition. The Apple Watch can take an electrocardiogram and send a notification if an irregular heart rhythm is identified. However, only a doctor can diagnosis AFib. Apple has teamed up with Johnson & Johnson to determine if the wearable technology’s ability to detect AFib earlier improves diagnosis and patient outcomes.
     
  5. Fruit flies could unlock new AFib treatments. Believe it or not, the heart of a fruit fly—which is a tube—models early heart development. In a human, this tube folds into the four chambers of the heart. Combined with their short life cycle and simple genome, fruit flies are an excellent model of heart disease that could unlock new treatments, including those for AFib. Listen to how SBP scientists are using fruit flies to study AFib.

Additional AFib resources: 

Institute News

American Heart Association awards postdoctoral fellowship to SBP scientist

AuthorMonica May
Date

January 23, 2019

Chiara Nicoletti, PhD, Sanford Burnham Prebys

It’s no surprise that muscles are important to our metabolism: it’s why building muscle at the gym can accelerate weight loss. 

Scientists are particularly interested in how muscle metabolism affects the heart, arguably the most important muscle in the body. With heart disease remaining the number-one killer of men and women in the U.S., the hunt is on to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the heart so we can develop better treatments. (Learn more about heart disease at our upcoming SBP Insights event.) 

Research is revealing that altered communications between skeletal and heart muscle increases the risk of heart disease. But the molecular mechanisms behind this link are currently unknown. 

Now, the American Heart Association has awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship to SBP’s Chiara Nicoletti, PhD, to study the genetic basis of metabolic changes in skeletal muscle that ultimately lead to heart disease. Nicoletti works in the lab of Pier Lorenzo Puri, MD, professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program at SBP. 

Findings from Nicoletti’s work could uncover therapeutic targets for heart disease and/or lead to a prognostic tool that could predict heart disease risk. Both developments would be much-needed advances in the battle against heart disease. 

Interested in keeping up with SBP’s latest discoveries, upcoming events and more? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Discoveries.

Institute News

Year in review: SBP highlights from 2018

AuthorMonica May
Date

December 17, 2018

Sanford Burnham Prebys 2018 Year in Review

The science never stops at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP), and 2018 was no different. 

From an Alzheimer’s breakthrough to advancing promising medicines for pancreatic cancer and autoimmune disorders, our hardworking scientists were busy at the bench and beyond. As the year comes to a close, we are sharing a selection of our most widely read stories from the past 12 months. 

1.    Scientists uncover a potential near-term treatment for Alzheimer’s disease 
Jerold Chun, MD, PhD, and his team revealed that never-before-seen DNA recombination in the brain is linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The research suggests that existing FDA-approved drugs to treat HIV might hold potential as near-term Alzheimer’s treatments and provide an explanation for why previous clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease have failed. The study was published in Nature.

2.    SBP women awarded American Heart Association Fellowships
The American Heart Association awarded grants to three SBP scientists. This funding advances projects that align with the organization’s mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. 

3.    Compound discovered at SBP enters Phase 1 clinical trial for pancreatic cancer
Solid tumors are often surrounded by thick fibrotic walls, making it hard for treatments to get access to the tumor cells. CEND-1, a drug candidate discovered in the lab of Erkki Ruoslahti, MD, PhD, has entered a Phase 1 clinical trial for metastatic pancreatic cancer. CEND-1 streamlines the delivery of cancer drugs deep into tumors. CEND-1 was licensed to the private company DrugCendR Inc. in 2015. 

4.    Scientists solve a medical mystery
Hudson Freeze, PhD, and his team joined collaborators around the globe to crack the case of Saul-Wilson syndrome, a rare form of dwarfism with an unknown cause. Now, the 14 known people with the syndrome and their families have answers: A gene alteration that affects the cell’s protein packager, the Golgi complex, causes the condition. 

5.    Immune therapy developed through SBP and Lilly collaboration enters Phase 1 clinical trial
A therapy that arose from a research collaboration between Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) and SBP entered a Phase 1 clinical trial. The therapy is a biologic that inhibits inflammation—a common response linked to autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and inflammatory bowel disease.

Interested in keeping up with SBP’s latest discoveries, upcoming events and more? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Discoveries.

To help SBP scientists focus on pioneering research that transforms human health, donate now. 

Institute News

SBP women awarded American Heart Association Fellowships

AuthorSusan Gammon
Date

June 15, 2018

AHA fellowship

There has never been a more exciting time to embark on a career in biomedical research. Fortunately, the American Heart Association (AHA) is supporting early-career scientists with passion, commitment and focus by providing fellowships that fund their pursuit of cardiovascular research. Recently, three SBP scientists were awarded AHA grants to finance projects that align with the AHA mission of building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke.

Katja Birker (left)
Birker, a graduate student in the lab of Rolf Bodmer, PhD, will be studying genes that could possibly contribute to hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS)—a condition that affects roughly 2–4 out of every 10,000 babies. Today, the cure for HLHS is a three-step invasive surgery that begins two weeks after the baby is born.

Birker will be collaborating with the Mayo Clinic to identify and test whether candidate HLHS genes found in patients have similar consequences in the hearts of fruit flies, which are an established model organism for cardiovascular research. She will use the flies to work toward her goal of validating novel genes that could be used in the future for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes related to cardiovascular diseases. 

EePhie Tan, PhD (middle)
Tan’s research is taking a deeper dive into previous research showing that the cell recycling process called autophagy provides health benefits—including life extension—in response to reduced food intake. This project will examine the cell networks that govern autophagy, and a specialized form of autophagy called lipophagy (fat recycling). Lipophagy is a relatively new field of biomedical research, but scientists have already learned that malfunctions in lipophagy can lead to the accumulation of toxic fat deposits and contribute to heart disease.

Tan, a postdoc in the lab of Malene Hansen, PhD, will use a small worm called C. elegans as a model system to study proteins involved in the lipophagy process. Since the core machinery of lipophagy is conserved in all organisms (from humans to C. elegans), Tan’s findings may be used to find future treatments that target toxic fat deposits in heart disease.

Clara Guida, PhD (right)
Guida will study why children from obese parents have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The research may lead to the development of biomarkers that can predict heart conditions caused by parents that eat a high-fat diet (HFD), and may lead to new drugs that can prevent the negative effects of a parental HFD on the heart function of offspring.

Guida, a postdoc in Bodmer’s lab, will study the inheritance of DNA modifications called “epigenetic marks” in fruit flies fed a HFD. These epigenetic marks are thought to cause heart problems in the next generation. She will be testing potential drugs to see if they can erase the inherited abnormal gene changes and prevent the negative effects of a parental HFD. The research is especially relevant to lipotoxic cardiomyopathy—a condition associated with fat accumulation in the heart.