3 Topic Commentaries

Tiny Heart Samples, Detailed Protein Data

Tiny Heart Samples, Detailed Protein Data

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  David A. Kass, MD

  Cardiology

  •

  Johns Hopkins Medicine

  “Much of our insights into human heart failure come from studies of muscle tissue from explanted hearts, but because HFpEF patients are generally not transplanted, our understanding of this disease is far more limited,” says David Kass, director of Johns Hopkins’ Center for Molecular Cardiobiology. “Cardiac biopsies will give us much-needed information about the characteristics and behavior of cardiac cells in HFpEF.”

  Source
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  Martha Grogan, MD

  Cardiology (Cardiac Amyloidosis)

  •

  Mayo Clinic

  “So the most important thing for you to know is really pretty simple. The treatment for cardiac amyloidosis depends completely on which type you have, and in order to establish a diagnosis of amyloid you must first have what we call a tissue biopsy. … Pathologists use a technique called mass spectrometry to determine the type of amyloid that you have, and it's very important to make sure that your specimen has been examined by someone who's very expert in this technique.”

  Source
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  Ying Ge, PhD

  Proteomics / Cardiovascular Research

  •

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  “This data opens the door with evidence showing that protein-level changes might be a better reflection of the patient’s disease than their genes, and if we can examine patients’ samples at the protein level, that could help us provide precision-medicine treatments.”

  Source