The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) seeks partners in a biomarker consortium to promote research on novel serum/plasma/urine biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors, including atherosclerosis, obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. An immediate consequence of this project will be the development of new diagnostic tests to identify individuals at high risk for CVD and its risk factors at a time when intervention is most feasible. A downstream result of the identification of novel biomarkers of CVD (and its risk factors) will be the discovery of disease-promoting pathways, which may serve as new therapeutic targets for treating and preventing the nation's leading cause of death.
Despite steady declines in CVD mortality, it remains the leading cause of death in the developed world. The NHLBI's Framingham Heart Study (FHS) has been instrumental in the identification and elucidation of key modifiable CVD risk factors, which in turn have facilitated modern approaches to its prevention and treatment.
Because of its prospective study design, the NHLBI's FHS is ideally positioned to enable identification of novel risk factors for CVD.
More info: Lili Portilla, PortillL@nhlbi.nih.gov
