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Metabolomic Approaches to Study Cardiovascular Disease Mechanisms and Diagnosis
Sponsored by APS Cardiovascular Section
Metabolic Abnormalities Track

Metabolomics is considered the third piece in the “omic” triad.  Genomics defines the genes responsible for protein expression.  Proteomics defines the proteins expressed in a cell. However, the function of a cell is governed by how genes and proteins communicate via small molecules which make up the metabolome.  Metabalomics, whether based in mass spec or NMR approaches, has proven to be a powerful approach to define the functional state of a cell or an organism.  In general metabolomics has been successfully employed to either uncover mechanisms of a system (using  a systems biology approach) or to define metabolomic patterns to be used as biomarkers of disease (also known as metabonomics).  In this symposium, we will highlight investigators who use metabolomics to study the cardiovascular system and/or the metabolic syndrome. Dan Beard's group uses computational modeling to simulate multiple-scale cardiac physiology in order to understand how molecular mechanisms impact whole-organ function in health and disease. He will discuss how energy metabolism in the heart and skeletal muscle is disregulated in specific mitochondrial defects and during cardiovascular disease.  Henri Brunengraber uses metabolomics associated with isotopomer analysis for pathway discovery and to study issues in metabolic regulation and control; he will discuss his work in light of the metabolic syndrome.  Christopher Newgard has done pioneering work in diabetes and now uses metabolomics to probe cardiovascular disease.  Chris Hardin, in collaboration with Paul Phillips, uses metabonomics to probe the mechanisms behind, and a biomarker for, statin associated muscle myopath.  Therefore each of these four talks will provide an example of the utility of metabolomic approaches to the study of cardiovascular disease.  The target audience are basic scientists and clinicians seeking to understand the complexity of cardiovascular disease and to seek biomarkers for cardiovascular disease.  Since metabolomics is a new field still in need of standards, future directions will be an key part of all talks.