UC Davis Cardiovascular Symposium Systems Approach to Understanding Cardiac Excitation-Contraction and Arrhythmias ? Mechanics and Energetics in Heart diseases and Arrhythmias ABSTRACT Heart diseases remain the leading cause of death, but still without effective drug therapies. In order to develop better and more effective therapies to treat heart diseases, it is critically important for scientists and physicians to obtain in-depth and accurate understanding of the heart disease mechanisms. In recent decades, researchers studying heart diseases in the field have been accumulating more and more experimental data from molecular, to cellular, and to tissue and organ levels. However, important conceptual advances in the cardiac field require integration of the knowledge from multiple scales. Here we propose to take the necessary step forward to integrate experimental data into quantitative models that enable using mathematical tools and computational power to understand the complex interactions of the cells and molecules in the heart. The unique design of this conference series is to combine experimental study and mathematical modeling to achieve in-depth understanding of the dynamic systems that control cardiac function and heart diseases. The proposed interdisciplinary conference is the 5th in this series entitled ?System's Approach to Understand Cardiac Excitation-Contraction Coupling?. The previous conferences have received overwhelmingly positive evaluations from attendees and resulted in high impact publications. The proposed conference will combine experimental and modeling studies in the field of Mechanics and Energetics, with topics focused on the cutting edge research in cardiac mechanics, mechanotransduction, and feedback between energetics and mechanics in heart diseases and arrhythmias. The emphasis of this conference will be on (1) summarizing current state of research in the focus area, (2) identifying consensus and controversy that warrant more investigation, (3) exchanging ideas, data, and information among the experimentalists and modelers to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations. The conference results will be summarized in the form of comprehensive review papers which will be published in leading scientific journals that have broad impact on the research community.
Cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure are the #1 cause of death in the United States and developed world. We propose to hold an interdisciplinary conference to bring together internationally renowned experimentalists and computational modelers in the cardiac research field. The goal is to achieve quantitative in-depth understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that cause heart diseases. Understanding the disease mechanisms is critically important for developing new therapeutic strategies to effectively treat heart diseases.
