Partnership between the BHF and DZHK funds innovative cardiovascular research projects to encourage international collaborations between cardiovascular researchers in the UK and Germany.
The scientists aim to find new targets of the vascular interface in atherosclerosis, based on gene discovery. In particular, they popose to understand the role of coronary disease risk genes at the vascular interface and identification of key tagets for therapies.
Contributing PIs include Hugh Watkins (Oxford), Jeannette Erdmann (Lübeck), John Danesh (Cambridge), Shu Ye (Leicester), Heribert Schunkert (München) and Christian Weber (München).
Studies involving large groups of people with and without heart disease, have identified changes in the DNA code that are more frequent in people with the disease. The scientists found that many of these DNA changes are in genes involved in the wall of our blood vessels, an important biological system in the development of heart disease.
The researchers plan to combine innovative computational and experimental methods to understand the role of these risk genes at the vascular interface and to identify novel drug targets for therapies.
