Texas Heart Institute, Texas Children’s, and Baylor College of Medicine to Collaborate on Research to Improve Pediatric Heart Transplants
More than 450 children undergo a heart transplant in the United States each year. Despite incredible advances in the field of pediatric transplant medicine, children and their families still face a lifetime of challenges. The average heart transplant lasts 17 years, and these children rarely find a suitable second replacement heart.
Dr. James F. Martin, Director of the Cardiomyocyte Renewal Laboratory of the Texas Heart Institute, and Dr. Diwakar Turaga and Dr. Iki Adachi from Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine will embark on a new research program to study ways to detect better a form of heart transplant rejection called cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV).
“We are honored to receive this prestigious funding from The American Heart Association and Enduring Hearts. Our talented team of investigators will use single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to study heart tissue obtained from children undergoing a heart transplant, which could allow for early detection and treatment of CAV, according to Dr. Martin, Principal Investigator of the national multicenter study.
