We have established a sustainable atrial fibrillation (AF) genetics initiative in Norway to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying this common cardiac arrhythmia. AF affects more than 30 million individuals worldwide and increases the risk of stroke, heart failure, dementia and death. Current treatment options for AF are limited, may have serious potential side effects and are only partially successful. This clearly shows that we have insufficient knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of the disease. The project leader & applicant started her career establishing the heritability of AF in a twin study (Circ EP 2009) and since then, she has continued her research on the molecular basis of this heritability, through numerous publications identifying both rare and common variants associated with AF, both from her own lab and as part of international collaborative efforts such as the AFGen consortium. Inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias are serious cardiac conditions associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac death, and is frequently associated with AF. In the GENAF Norway initiative, we aim to discover new mechanisms for AF cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias through a range of studies. We have enrolled more than 1000 individuals with early-onset AF in Norway and are performing both GWAS and WGS on these data. Further, we will 1) identify new rare variants for AF through whole-genome sequencing data; 2) identify new common variants for AF through GWAS; 3) identifify pathogenic variants associated with monogenetic cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia in AF patients; 4) We will identify clinical & genetic predictors of risk, prognosis, treatment response & clinical trajectories, using genetic and clinical data from the GENAF Norway study in combination with data from UK Biobank, as well as other collaborative sources. We aim to get one step closer to delivering precision medicine to the individuals affected by this common and deadly arrhythmia.
