Translational research, or converting basic science discoveries to clinical care, occurs across all aspects of the Heart Signature Program, which was led in 2006 by William Abraham, MD, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and associate director for clinical and translational research at Ohio State’s Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. Research within this Signature Program focuses on heart failure, ischemic disease, transplantation, arrhythmias/electrophysiology and vascular disease.
Heart care is provided at The Ohio State University Medical Center’s Ross Heart Hospital, University Hospital, University Hospital East, and at local and regional outpatient clinics associated with Ohio State. Educational opportunities within this Signature Program include fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine, cardiac surgery and vascular surgery, along with doctoral, postdoctoral and continuing medical education programs.
Heart Signature Program highlights of 2006:
- The program recruited 13 faculty members in cardiology and two in cardiac surgery.
- The program continued work toward recruiting a nationally renowned medical scientist to direct the Ohio State University Heart Center, which includes cardiovascular medicine, vascular surgery and cardiothoracic surgery services across the research, education and patient care mission areas. The Heart Center primarily involves Ohio State’s Ross Heart Hospital and the University’s Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute. In 2007 the program recruited Thomas Ryan, MD, formerly of the Duke Heart Center, to this position.
- The program increased its total National Institutes of Health (NIH) research awards to $12.73 million in 2006.
- The Division of Cardiovascular Medicine has approximately 90 clinical research studies, including investigator-initiated single-site studies, NIH-sponsored multisite trials, and industry-sponsored trials. Deanna Golden-Kreutz, PhD, clinical research manager, says studies span heart failure, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology, imaging, genotyping, sports/prevention, sleep disorders, transplant/cardiothoracic surgery, emergency medicine and pulmonary hypertension. Of note is the Division’s national leadership in the investigational use of hemodynamic monitors, ventricular support devices and cardiac CT/MR.
- The research team of Subha Raman, MD, seeks discoveries afforded by high-resolution, noninvasive imaging to improve cardiovascular care. The group’s close integration with the clinical mission ensures that successful research efforts can be seamlessly translated into prevention, early diagnosis and personalized treatment to improve cardiovascular health. Results have delivered more accurate, less invasive detection of cardiovascular disease that has improved outcomes.
- The lab team of Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, furthered its study of artherosclerosis-related complications and the role of risk factors, including environmental determinants on the initiation and progression of atherosclerotic plaque. The lab, funded by four grants from the National Institutes of Health, has focused on MRI imaging of plaque and high-resolution intravital techniques to understand early leukocyte endothelial interactions in atherosclerosis.
- Periannan Kuppusamy, PhD, focuses on imaging research, having published a landmark paper in the American Journal of Physiology – Heart and Circulatory Physiology on the labeling of stem cells with oxygen-sensing nanoprobes. Based largely on this pioneering work, Kuppusamy has received a research grant of $1.35 million for four years from the National Institutes of Health for his study on stem cell therapy in the heart. This will help him develop probes and imaging methods for noninvasive tracking and assessment of the stem cell engraftment, repair and angiogenesis in damaged heart tissue. The technology will help physicians monitor cell therapy and could open avenues for treating heart disease.
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