Pathophysiology of Myocardial Disease

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Cardiovascular disease continues to be a dominant cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and throughout the world. While many gains have been achieved in some areas, the epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and life-style risk factors is contributing to expanding prevalence of heart failure. The advances made over the past decade have resulted from the dedication and talents of many researchers in basic, translational, clinical, and population epidemiological scientific inquiry. For nearly 45 years, The Johns Hopkins T32 Program in Cardiovascular Disease has trained many of these researchers, and with this renewal proposal we aim to continue this success. Our philosophy is to provide a broad-based, multi- and inter- disciplinary research environment with which to train post-doctoral fellows in basic, translational, clinical, and/or population science. Our program accepts physicians in Cardiology - some with PhDs as well who are dedicated to pursuing an academic research career, as well as non- clinical trainees (PhD or MD) pursuing cardiovascular science. This mixture of basic and clinical scientists has fostered an unusual environment conducive to out-of-the-box thinking and translation of novel approaches to new understandings and treatment of cardiovascular disease. While centered in the Division of Cardiology, the program engages faculty throughout the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions with expertise and interest in cardiovascular research. This includes faculty in Divisions/Departments of Pulmonary Medicine, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, Pathology, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Genetic Medicine. All have long- standing collaborations with Cardiology Division faculty. The primary areas of research covered in our program encompass basic science in ventricular and vascular pathobiology, pulmonary hypertension; regenerative cell biology and tissue engineering; immunology and metabolism; computational modeling, and bioinformatics including artificial intelligence and deep learning. Clinical and translational research focuses on heart failure, electrophysiology, cardiovascular imaging, and interventional cardiology. Large population studies focus on epidemiological studies and health care delivery. The program supports 12 positions for generally 2 years of research training. It also includes two positions with a structured year of formal course work to provide a master’s degree or certificate program in clinical investigation, epidemiology or public health. With this renewal, we continue our primary goal of providing leadership in academic cardiology, training future leaders in all levels of research to help combat cardiovascular disease.