Meeting discusses gene therapy, personalized drugs

Diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease, the nation’s number-one killer, in the near future is under the scrutiny of approximately 500 physicians and research scientists from around the world.

They are in Madison for a conference that starts today to learn about advances in cardiovascular disease research and treatment.

The 24th annual meeting of the International Society for Heart Research, North American Section, runs through Saturday, July 27, at Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. It is preceded by a special meeting on women and heart disease.

“Hosting this meeting is a tremendous opportunity for the university and our UW Cardiovascular Research Center,” says Richard Moss, chair of the local organizing committee, and professor and chairman of physiology at UW Medical School. “Some of the world’s top experts in heart research will be here to present the very latest developments and directions in cardiovascular research.”

The conference’s first keynote speaker on July 25, Dr. Eduardo Marban, will discuss one of the hottest topics in cardiology: the use of gene therapy for heart arrhythmias (abnormal rhythms). Marban, of Johns Hopkins University, conducts research into how to deliver healthy genes into heart tissue to correct genetic defects.

The second keynoter, Dr. Dan Roden, of Vanderbilt University, will talk about an exciting trend in medication therapy: the use of genetic information to tailor drug therapy to a patient’s specific needs. In the near future, physicians will be able to predict, through genetics, how their patients will respond to medication and then select a medication tailor-made for their particular disorder.

Other topics to be discussed at the conference include heart failure, stem cell research for heart problems, the emerging science of proteomics, and repair of cardiac tissue after a heart attack.

Several sessions will focus on mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias and will honor the contributions of a pioneer in this field, Dr. Harry Fozzard of the University of Chicago.

More complete information, including the conference schedule, is available at on the Web.