Cardiovascular or heart disease is the predominant cause of human morbidity and mortality in developed countries. A big heart and high blood pressure are bad news, no matter what the cause. These two diseases are both major risk factors for cardiovascular disease and Professor Fadi Charchar's laboratory's effort is devoted to determining the molecular and pathophysiological characteristics of both with the goal of developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic. We are using a model of human heart enlargement that has a genetic cause in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and we also have a large collection of human cohorts and kidney tissue bank in collaboration with universities worldwide. Our recent studies have shown that a novel class of small noncoding RNAs, called microRNAs (miRNAs) are possible contributors to hypertension and enlarged hearts. We are also part of The International Consortium for Blood Pressure Genome-Wide Association Studies (Nature, 2011) We have a special interest in the Y chromosome and disease.