Leducq Foundation provides $7 million to support Cardiac Splicing as a Therapeutic Target project
Diverse messenger RNAs are produced in cells by “alternative splicing.” The Leducq Foundation is now supporting a transatlantic network dedicated to investigating this process in heart muscle cells and how changes in this process contribute to disease. Professor Michael Gotthardt of the MDC and Professor Leslie Leinwand of the University of Colorado Boulder are coordinating the project.
Despite advances in prevention and therapy, cardiovascular diseases are still one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Scientists have only recently begun to understand the key role of alternative splicing - the "stitching together" of messenger RNA during gene transcription - in cardiovascular diseases. The Leducq Foundation is providing 7 million U.S. dollars over the next five years to support the Cardiac Splicing as a Therapeutic Target (CASTT) project, which is comprised of six European and U.S. researchers. They will focus on examining the regulation and disease relevance of alternative splicing in different types of heart cells.