Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in Canada, and it now affects increasingly younger people. Therefore, it is important to better understand risk and protection factors of cardiovascular diseases to improve prevention and care. The most important risk factors for heart disease are obesity, diabetes, blood lipids (cholesterol) and life habits. We also know that heart disease runs in families. However, the specific genetic mechanisms involved have not yet been clearly identified. Some clinical observations suggest that epigenetic factors are an important piece of the puzzle. Epigenetics refers to DNA modification acting as a permissive (gas pedal) or a constraint (break pedal) to gene readings (expression). Since the speed at which gene reading takes place is a major issue in disease development, epigenetics has the real potential to better explain how genes are associated with known risk factors for heart disease and involved in disease development. The aim of my project is to determine how gene reading speed control (epigenetics) is related to heart disease, specially to a specific risk factor for the disease, namely low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations (HDL-C; the so-called "good" cholesterol). By the use of high throughput technologies, reading speed of specific human genes will be measured in blood of individuals at high and low risk to develop heart disease, according to HDL-C concentration. A subset of the most promising genes (those showing the most important association) will be selected for deeper analyses in larger groups. The anticipated results of this research program will contribute to a better understanding of how epigenetics influences the long-term risk of obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, this project will yield results that will contribute to build a solid basis for the improvement of cardiovascular disease prevention and eventually to improve the health of Canadians.