Seema Mital

Research Synopsis

Our research focusses on genomics, pharmacogenomics and stem cell applications in childhood heart disease. In 2015, we launched the Cardiac Precision Medicine Program focussed on precision medicine approaches for childhood onset heart disease. This includes the study of DNA using next-generation sequencing, and tissue and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in patients with congenital cardiac malformations and cardiomyopathies.

The goals are to identify gene defects that cause heart disease in children, identify the influence of genetic variations on disease severity and outcomes, and apply this knowledge to inform the clinical care of children with heart disease and discovery of new therapies for pediatric heart failure. An equally important goal is to study gene-environment interactions in causing heart disease. The approach to research is translational and includes clinical and basic research methodologies to answer these questions.