Cardiovascular Program
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.
- NHLBI
- NIAID
Research Projects
Atherosclerosis/Myocardial infarction
- Exploring the role of inflammatory networks in ischemic heart disease and stroke
- Major focus on monocyte/macrophage subsets, their function and ontogeny
- Chemical biology and genomic studies to assign function to susceptibility alleles for atherosclerosis or myocardial infarction
- 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
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 diseasess
Stem cells and regeneration
- Role of hematopoietic stem cells in ischemic heart disease and stroke
- 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
Recent Publications
Grune J, Bajpai G, Ocak PT, Kaufmann E, Mentkowksi K, Pabel S, Kumowski N, Pulous FE, Tran KA, Rohde D, Zhang S, Iwamoto Y, Wojtkiewicz GR, Vinegoni C, Green U, Swirski FK, Stone JR, Lennerz JK, Divangahi M, Hulsmans M, Nahrendorf M Virus-Induced Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Causes Cardiomyopathy Through Eliciting Inflammatory Responses in the Heart. Circulation. 2024;:ePub - PMID: 38506045 - DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.123.066433
De Souza DC, Hebert N, Esrick EB, Ciuculescu MF, Archer NM, Armant M, Audureau, Brendel C, Di Caprio G, Galactéros F, Liu D, McCabe A, Morris E, Schonbrun E, Williams D, Wood DK, Williams DA, Bartolucci P, Higgins JM Genetic reversal of the globin switch concurrently modulates both fetal and sickle hemoglobin and reduces red cell sickling. Nat Commun. 2023;14(1):5850 - PMID: 37730674 - PMCID: PMC10511721 - DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40923-5
Hulsmans M, Schloss MJ, Lee IH, Bapat A, Iwamoto Y, Vinegoni C, Paccalet A, Yamazoe M, Grune J, Pabel S, Momin N, Seung H, Kumowski N, Pulous FE, Keller D, Bening C, Green U, Lennerz JK, Mitchell RN, Lewis A, Casadei B, Iborra-Egea O, Bayes-Genis A, Sossalla S, Ong CS, Pierson RN, Aster JC, Rohde D, Wojtkiewicz GR, Weissleder R, Swirski FK, Tellides G, Tolis G, Melnitchouk S, Milan DJ, Ellinor PT, Naxerova K, Nahrendorf M Recruited macrophages elicit atrial fibrillation. Science. 2023;381(6654):231-239 - PMID: 37440641 - PMCID: PMC10448807 - DOI: 10.1126/science.abq3061
Hegemann N, Sang P, Kim JH, Koçana C, Momin N, Klages J, Kucherenko MM, Knosalla C, O'Brien B, Simmons S, Nahrendorf M, Kuebler WM, Grune J Ultrasonographic assessment of pulmonary and central venous congestion in experimental heart failure. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2023;326(2):H433-H440 - PMID: 38099848 - DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00735.2023
- More publications ...
News
The exercise manuscript by Frodermann and Rohde (Nahrendorf Lab) received the 2020 MGH Martin Prize in Clinical Research. Bottom line: get your recommended 150 min of exercise per week!
Nahrendorf lab alumni Hendrik Sager was appointed as associate professor and deputy-head of cardiology at the Technical University Munich. Congratulations Hendrik!
Swirski and Nahrendorf labs at the 2019 Atherosclerosis Gordon Conference
"Leaders In Cardiovascular Science" - Circulation Research profiles Fil Swirski. (pdf)
Aaron Aguirre, MD, PhD has received a 2017 Physician/Scientist Development Award for “Morphology and Dynamic Functions of Pericytes in the Heart.” The project will use state-of-the-art microscopy techniques to better understand the role of pericytes—unique cells that line the outer walls of the smallest blood vessels in the heart.