Approved Research

Identifying novel therapeutic targets associated with cardiovascular disease

Lay summary

According to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are responsible for the greatest number of deaths annually, with numbers having increased since 2000. A better understanding of causes behind CVD along with improved treatment options are critical to reducing patients' morbidity and mortality, which may be achieved using more accurate disease models. Dynomics is able engineer human cardiac organoids from stem cells which authentically model the function of human heart tissue, opening avenues for developing targeted treatments to address different disease states. Despite this, identifying effective targets remains a significant challenge, and is both labour intensive and time consuming. Our main aim is to use computational methods to gain knowledge of the role of potential targets in CVD across the population. This will help improve the lists of therapeutic targets for further testing and downstream therapeutic development.