2011 M. Irene Ferrer Awardee, Columbia University
Dr. Jonathan T. Lu, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is looking at the characteristics of heart cells that come from women who have an electrical abnormality in their hearts. Disturbances in their cardiac rhythm can cause them to faint and can even be fatal. These women have a specific mutation in one of their genes that men also have, but men have no disturbance in the electrical system that produces the heartbeat and are not symptomatic. To examine this fascinating difference between the sexes, Dr. Lu has grown cardiac cells from humans with this disorder and is looking at the electrical characteristics of these cells. He has collaborated with a visiting medical student from Linkoping University in Sweden, Sofia Staf, to see whether sex hormones had an effect on the characteristics of these cells. Estrogen had no apparent impact on the genes expressed by the cultured myocytes. The next step is to see if testosterone modifies the characteristics of the cells. We are particularly pleased to meet Ms. Staf, who hopes to return to continue her work with Dr. Lu after her medical school education in Sweden.