Cardiovascular Program
People
- Ausiello, Dennis A.
- Benoist, Christophe
- Gerszten, Robert
- Libby, Peter
- Mathis, Diane
- Mootha, Vamsi
- Nahrendorf, Matthias
- Peterson, Randall
- Shaw, Stanley
- Weissleder, Ralph
Funding
- Reynolds Foundation
- NHLBI
- NIAID
The Cardiovascular and Metabolic Program aims at advancing the knowledge of prevalent cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and accelerating the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. The program brings together scientists from multiple communities within MGH and Harvard. Collectively, the projects described below undertake a variety of systems-level analyses, including systematic mapping of genetic/functional interactions, functional genomics, and in vivo molecular imaging.
Atherosclerosis/Myocardial infarction
- Chemical biology and genomic studies to assign function to susceptibility alleles for atherosclerosis or myocardial infarction
- Exploring the role of macrophage subsets in plaque formation
- Nanomaterial-based molecular imaging probes to define cellular and enzymatic components of plaque, and monitor disease progression and therapeutic response in pre-clinical studies and clinical trials
Beta cell biology
- Chemical and functional genomic studies of MODY (Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young) disease mechanism
- In vivo imaging of beta cells and non-invasive quantitation of beta cell mass
- Nanoparticle-based in vivo imaging of pancreatic islet inflammation, including human clinical trials
Metabolism and energetics
- Systematic mapping of metabolic pathways in health and disease using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and proteomics
- Translational research in metabolic syndrome
- Functional genomics of mitochondrial function in diabetes and other human diseases
Stem cells and regeneration
- Small molecule approaches to direct differentiation of stem cells into the cardiac lineage
- Chemical screens in stem cells or model organisms to dissect developmental pathways and manipulate them for therapeutic benefit
- Nanoparticle-based imaging of transplanted stem cells in vivo
Novel biomarkers for diagnosis, clinical phenotyping and disease status
- Metabolites
- Cell-based phenotypes
- Nanoparticle-based molecular imaging
- Benchtop parallel measurement of multiplexed analytes