My major research is dedicated to understanding the molecular genetics of cardiomyopathies, primarily the identification of genes responsible for cardiomyopathy of all etiologies. My work also focuses on defining the molecular mechanisms involved in chemotherapy-induced cardiomyopathy. Limited studies have been conducted to define the genetic basis of why patients undergoing cancer treatment develop heart failure and respond to standard medical therapy for treatment of heart failure. I have established the world’s largest database of DNA from patients with heart failure secondary to chemotherapy and have future plans to perform genotyping to identify heart failure susceptibility genes which may predispose patients to development of left ventricular dysfunction and potentially response and recovery of cardiac function. To this date we now have over 600 samples and have plans on obtaining 3000 samples. In addition, I have also developed a tissue bank for further expression studies to identify critical pathways which are common to cancer biology and cardiovascular biology.
I was the first to establish a cardiomyopathy service within a cancer hospital and was able to establish standards for cardioprotection prior to Anthracycline based therapies and investigate novel mechanisms which lead to recovery of cardiac function in chemotherapy induced cardiomyopathy from Anthracyclines, Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors and radiation.