Congratulations to various members of Cardiovascular Medicine faculty who have recently received grants, including Drs. Junco Warren (Research Assistant Professor) and Stavros Drakos (Professor). Details about each grant are provided below:
R01 - Perm1 is a Novel Regulator of Cardiac Function and Energetics
- Principle Investgators: Stavros Drakos & Junco Warren
- The goal of this study is to elucidate a novel transcriptional mechanism responsible for modulating metabolism and mitochondrial bioenergetics in the healthy and failing hearts. Perm1 is a striated muscle-specific regulator of mitochondrial bioenergetics. However, the role of Perm1 in the heart is unknown. Our recent study demonstrated that Perm1 is downregulated in the mouse and human failing hearts (Oka et al. PLOS ONE. 2020). This project aims to establish the role of Perm1 in the heart and apply for translational study exploring its therapeutic potential in myocardial recovery of heart failure patients.
VA Merit - Understanding Myocardial Recovery in Diabetes and Heart Failure
- Principle Investigator: Stavros Drakos
- This project is using the novel method of non-radioactive metabolic flux studies to interrogate the dynamic metabolism and mechanisms implicated in myocardial recovery in heart failure patients with diabetes mellitus. Specifically, it will investigate the role of well-controlled glycemia in myocardial recovery and whether the new anti-diabetic drugs, SGLT2i, enhance myocardial recovery by promoting lipolysis and ketone utilization in diabetes and heart failure.