Our ongoing projects
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Understanding the biological underpinnings leading to sex differences observed in heritable human diseases is critical for developing precision medicine approaches that work equally well in males and females. Equally as important are gender-related exposures including socioeconomic position and sexual assault-trauma which have tremendous and widespread effects on disease risk throughout the lifespan. This project aims to create new knowledge of how sex and gender-related exposures impact disease and how they modify genetic risk for disease across the entire medical phenome, including over 1,000 clinically relevant biomarkers. Collaboration with Dr. Lea K. Davis at Mt. Sinai/Vanderbilt.
Sex differences in cancer are well documented. This project aims to understand how genetics contributes to observed cancer differences between men and women, with the goal of generating new clinically relevant knowledge. The project aims to 1) Characterize sex differences at the molecular level in tumors derived from male and female patients, 2) Characterize sex differences in the contribution of inherited genetics to cancer risk, and 3) Discover mechanisms underlying sex differences in response to therapy. Collaboration with Dr. R. Stephanie Huang at University of Minnesota.
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Post-operative atrial fibrillation (poAF) is the most common complication following cardiac surgery, and contributes to a number of adverse outcomes. To improve this, we have collected left atrial tissue from patients who are in normal sinus rhythm as they undergo cardiac surgery, and then characterizing gene-expression and epigenomic differences in this tissue between patients that subsequently do and do not develop poAF. We will then perform functional validation in cardiac muscle stem cells. This study will identify new pharmacological targets for preventing and treating poAF. Collaboration with Dr. Jochen (Danny) Muehlschlegel at Johns Hopkins.
Ischemic heart disease is highly heritable. Ischemia initiates specific biological processes that are highly dependent on genetic, transcriptional, and translational variation. We have built a unique human left ventricle tissue bank from patients experiencing myocardial ischemia while undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Using this resource, we are characterizing the transcriptional response to ischemia and identifying expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) and defining links to myocardial injury in clinical cohorts. Collaboration with Dr. Jochen (Danny) Muehlschlegel at Johns Hopkins.