EU study selected as one of the most important cardiovascular pieces of research in 2007
The American Heart Association (AHA) has named a piece of EU-funded research as the second most influential work in the area of cardiovascular research in 2007. The selected study, entitled 'Genomewide association analysis of coronary artery disease', was published in the 2 August 2007 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Its authors, who are part of the European Cardiogenics project, have 'identified several genetic loci that, individually and in aggregate, substantially affect the risk of developing coronary artery disease', the AHA comments its decision. 'On the basis of these extraordinary research results, there is hope to find new formation mechanisms of heart attacks and develop new drugs that prevent them,' states Dr Jeanette Erdmann of the University of Lübeck, Germany, the organisation in charge of the Cardiogenics project. The Cardiogenics researchers used a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip to examine two control populations in England and Germany. This technology, which makes the simultaneous genomewide analysis of 500,000 gene variants (so-called SNPs) possible, has only been available for a few months, but has revolutionised the research for hereditary causes of disease, the Cardiogenics team points out. Every year, 750,000 people in Europe succumb to a heart attack, making cardiovascular diseases one of the most common causes of death. Beside established risk factors such as age, high blood pressure, smoking and obesity, genetic factors play a considerable role in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Cardiogenics brings together 17 partners from universities, research institutions and the industry. It receives nearly €10 million in EU funding in addition to financial and logistic support from major national initiatives such as the UK's Wellcome Trust and Germany's national genome research centre (NGFN) as well as several pan-European projects. The project's main objective is to identify risk genes for coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction with the help of genomics.