Mayo Clinic Florida researchers receive inaugural Cardiovascular Research Center Team Science Award

Nadine Norton, Ph.D., Carolyn Landolfo, M.D. (CV ’08), and DeLisa Fairweather, Ph.D. (CV ’16), received the first Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Center Team Science Award.

The two-year award will study “Transient Receptor Potential Cation (TRPC) Channels in Development of Heart Failure.” The purpose of the award is to foster collaboration in translational projects that have potential to impact cardiovascular disease clinical practice.

Dr. Norton leads the study. She is a molecular geneticist in the Department of Cancer Biology at Mayo Clinic in Florida and an assistant professor of cancer biology.

Dr. Landolfo is a consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Florida and an associate professor of medicine.

Dr. Fairweather is a translational cardiovascular scientist in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Florida and an associate professor of medicine.

The team’s goal is to better understand which breast cancer patients are at heightened risk for developing congestive heart failure. The team will examine rare genetic variants in the calcium channel gene, TRPC6, a potential culprit in the occurrence of heart failure following chemotherapy. The first steps of the Team Science project will use clinical data from patients to refine the TRPC6 risk phenotype. The research plan also will examine samples in the Mayo Clinic Biobank to establish an overlap between heart failure and specific cancer drugs in patients who carry the putative risk variants at TRPC6 and other genes associated with chemotherapy-related heart failure. The team will use mouse models to understand the specific cardiovascular effects of chemotherapy that are mediated through TRPC6 and how they can be prevented.