News

CBAC member Jennifer Silva, MD, a pediatric electrophysiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, treats children with abnormal heart rhythms. She has co-founded a startup company that is developing technology intended to help doctors see real-time 3D holograms of the heart during procedures to fix erratic heart rhythms.

Two graduate students turned entrepreneurs transformed a medical breakthrough from a lab project into a clinical tool. Years later, Medtronic bought the company they co-founded for $93 million.

CBAC member, Arthur’s long-standing place in the Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering will come to an end later this year when he leaves the university to continue working on his health care startup, ATM Cardiac Diagnostics LLC, which he formed along with fellow CBAC member Jason Trobaugh, professor of the practice in electrical & systems engineering, and Scott Marrus, MD, former CBAC member and a Washington University cardiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

After new technology recently revealed the structure of the protein, the lab of CBAC member Jianmin Cui, professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, will collaborate with two others to take an unprecedented look into its molecular mechanisms potentially leading to the development of new drugs for these and other conditions.

Physicians and patients have long awaited the next step beyond catheter ablation for ventricular tachycardia (VT). Could noninvasive stereotactic body radiation be that breakthrough?

Scientists studying link between rare disease and heart health CBAC member, Colin Nichols, the Carl F. Cori Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology, has received a grant to study how the genetic mutations underlying Cantu syndrome are linked to cardiovascular disease.

Pediatric cardiologist seeks keys to preventing congenital heart defects. This article features CBAC alumnus Patrick Jay, who was an associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Engineers find unexpected results during cardiac research. This article features CBAC members Jonathan Silva, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Jeanne Nerbonne, Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research at Washington University’s School of Medicine. Silva, Nerbonne and Zoltan Varga from the University of Debrecen in Hungary worked with collaborators to take a closer look at the sodium ion channels responsible for creating the electrical signal that makes the heartbeat.They found that certain sodium subunits attached to the main protein in different places. It was an unexpected result that could lead to better drug delivery and efficacy for patients with heart arrhythmia.

CBAC member Jianmin Cui, professor of biomedical engineering, and collaborators in three labs at WashU are studying the BK channel, which has been found to be important in regulating neuronal function and blood pressure.

Jon Silva and his team will study how small molecules and proteins interact with ion channels in the heart to cause and prevent arrhythmia, when the heart beats too fast, too slow, or is too unstable