The genetic architecture of cardiovascular structural phenotypes in cardiac remodelling (360G-Wellcome-203553_Z_16_Z)

Cardiovascular structural phenotypes and their adverse remodelling exert a powerful prognostic impact on cardiovascular diseases. It leads to heart failure, which creates a major healthcare and economic burden in the world. Cardiovascular structural variations result from a complex interplay between genes and environmental factors. Although the environmental influence is well established, little is known about the genetic factors. UK Biobank is a prospective population study, which provides magnetic resonance imaging-derived cardiovascular phenotypes and genetic data, enabling the implementation of large-scale genome-wide association studies. The primary aims of this fellowship are to investigate the heritability of cardiovascular structures and to identify genetic markers of cardiac remodelling using left ventricular (LV) phenotypes (Nmax = 55,000) and right ventricular, atrial, aortic and other novel phenotypes such as LV trabeculation and native myocardial T1 value (Nmax = 5,000). This project will enhance our understanding of the genetic architecture of cardiac remodelling processes, and the knowledge gained will have the potential to improve risk stratification and identify new therapeutic targets. Key words: cardiovascular structures, cardiovascular remodelling, magnetic resonance imaging, heritability, genome-wide association studies