Cardiovascular Center

Genetic and Molecular Etiology of Congenital Heart Disease Affinity Group

The Cardiovascular Center has initiated AFFINITY GROUPS to stimulate and foster greater interaction and collaborations between CVC investigators and other investigators from MCW departments and outside institutions, such as Marquette University, the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and the University of Georgia.

This group includes Aoy Tomita-Mitchell, PhD, and Michael E. Mitchell, MD, who are interested in identifying genetic risk factors of heart malformations and in understanding how these genetic alterations impact pathways at the molecular level. The group hopes to be able to improve immediate and long-term outcomes for patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) by identifying patients at risk for CHD before their heart fails. Ultimately, the group hopes that by identifying the genes and the pathways that are altered in CHD, therapies that will repair these pathways can be targeted. To reach this goal, this laboratory is focused on the following:

1. Patient recruitment to a CHD Tissue and DNA Bank, a repository of DNA and surgical discards from patients with congenital heart disease.
2. The development and utilization of high-throughput genetic technologies in order to reduce the high costs of performing large-scale genetic studies.
3. The integration of genetic information with clinical variability and outcomes.

Cardiovascular Annual Report 2010
 

Contact the CVC for additional information