Studying normal and cardiomyopathic human myofibrils
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Determining the molecular basis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using single molecule super-resolution microscopy
IRAS ID
273247
Contact name
Neil M Kad
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Kent
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cardiomyopathies are one of the largest genetic diseases, affect 1 in 500 individuals. These mutations affect the contractile machinery of the heart, leading to cardiac arrest in some individuals. There are a number of hypotheses for how such a large number of mutations lead to the same disease phenotypes. It is essential for us to understand the underlying mechanism of this disease. Using cutting-edge imaging approaches we intend to directly visualise the activity of the contractile components called myofibrils. These are extracted from tissue collected at banks provided by our European collaborators.
Presently, it is not possible to grow such samples using synthetic sources, therefore it is necessary to use human derived tissue. As synthetic sources become available our data will provide the benchmark by which to test this new material.
We hope that our findings will move the understanding of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies forward considerably, such understanding is necessary to develop effective treatments.REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1661
Date of REC Opinion
1 Nov 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion