Mete Civelek, PhD
University of Virginia researchers and their collaborators have identified genes that play key roles in the development of coronary artery disease, the No. 1 cause of death worldwide.
UVA’s findings essentially pick culprits responsible for coronary artery disease (CAD) out of a far, far larger lineup of potential genetic suspects. That gives scientists promising targets as they work to develop new and better treatments.
“Genetic studies done in more than 1 million people in the last 15 years identified hundreds of locations on our chromosomes that increase the risk of having a heart attack,” said senior researcher Mete Civelek, PhD, of UVA’s Center for Public Health Genomics and the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program of the School of Medicine and School of Engineering. “We now identified the genes that are responsible for this risk at these locations. We will be able to use these findings as new therapeutic targets.”
Read complete story in UVA Health Newsroom.