Clint L. Miller, PhD
Clint L. Miller, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and member of the Center of Public Health Genomics, was awarded a four-year $2.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to apply multimodal single-cell profiling of human coronary arteries from ancestrally diverse individuals to identify new molecular drivers and candidate treatments for coronary artery disease.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains a global public health burden despite advances in risk factor targeted therapies. There is a critical need to develop treatments that target the initiating events leading to atherosclerosis in the vessel wall. Large population studies have identified genetic variants linked to CAD risk; however, the impacted genes and mechanisms remain unclear. Recent advances in single-cell genomics profiling have unraveled the cellular diversity and markers of atherosclerosis, but the specific cell states driving gene regulatory networks have been elusive. The Miller lab has established a biobank of coronary artery tissues to profile genetic variation and cell states across atherosclerosis development. Dr. Miller’s research team will extend these studies to generate multimodal single-cell, spatial, and temporal profiles of subclinical and advanced stages of coronary atherosclerosis. Ultimately, they will reveal fine-grained molecular features and hallmarks of CAD initiation and progression and inform new treatment strategies.
Additional collaborators on this project include Associate Professors Ani Manichaikul, PhD, and Chongzhi Zang, PhD, also in the Center for Public Health Genomics, as well as investigators at Stanford University, Columbia University, Karolinska Institute, and CVPath Institute.
Filed Under: Research