Pioneering genetic research in the US into heart disease may help find a way to regenerate heart cells, according to an Irish member of the project team.
University College Cork graduate, Dr Carl J. Vaughan, is investigating the transfer of heart disease from one generation to the next in families as part of his work at Cornell University Medical Centre.
Dr Vaughan has made a significant advance in identifying a gene mutation central to the development of heart tumours. More recently he and his colleagues isolated an area on an individual chromosome which contains a gene causing aortic aneurysms.
The research has been made possible in part by using DNA sequence from the human genome which is the blueprint for life. The team at Cornell hope that by identifying the causes of the conditions, they can contribute to the quest for appropriate gene-based therapies.
Dr Vaughan believes the central question in the tumour research is whether it can be flipped around to regenerate heart cells.
Dr Vaughan (37) was one of the three UCC graduates honoured by the college at an alumni awards ceremony in Cork last Saturday night. He is assistant professor of medicine at Weill Medical College, Cornell, New York. His day-to-day work involves running a heart disease prevention programme. He warned that changes in lifestyle rather than the adoption of draconian diets - which ultimately fail - are crucial to achieving sustainable results.
The other recipients were Dr Edward Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, and Mr James O'Callaghan, technical director of the London-based John Murphy Construction Group.