Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Everyone is aware of the impact heart attacks have on peoples quality of life, and ultimately that death due to heart failure is an all too common event. This is particularly true in people who have obesity and/or diabetes. We now understand much about the complexity of the heart, its structure and how it functions. This has also allowed researchers to identify things which change in the heart before a heart attack to cause this event. Exactly WHY these various changes occur in people with obesity and diabetes has still to be fully understood. Only when we know these details will more effective therapies be developed. My project is designed to understand what causes changes in the structure and function of the heart in individuals with obesity and/or diabetes by focusing on i) the role of the body's immune system and ii) how the function of immune cells is determined by a hormone which is known to change in people with obesity, diabetes and heart failure.