Project Summary: The purpose of this five-year proposal is to provide an integrative and personalized training program for the applicant to transition into an independent academic position as a basic scientist in cardiac development and regeneration. The long-term goal is to understand the underlying mechanisms of atrial CM lineage development and atria-related congenital heart diseases.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this i-Corps project would be the ability to bring to market a heart-targeted radioisotope for use during stress testing. This is a field that has not seen any new imaging agents come to market in ~25 years. Current stress tests rely on a particular formulation of Technetium, a radioisotope, to image the heart at rest and at peak stress. This current clinical standard, Technetium Sestamibi, goes to multiple organs other than the heart leading to poor image quality due to high signal to noise ratio as well as increasing radiation exposure.
