From left: Dr Amelia Power and Dr Marie Ward
Congratulations Marie and Amelia!
Dr Marie Ward and Dr Amelia Power from the Department of Physiology have been awarded an AMRF project grant entitled “The impact of metabolic substrate on contractility and mitochondrial energy supply: Can we rescue the diabetic heart?”
Funding from the AMRF enables them to continue their investigation of diabetic heart disease using a highly translatable ex-vivo heart model for the examination of human atrial tissue function. Utilising a novel culture system designed for multicellular cardiac muscle preparations (trabeculae) they will determine the optimal metabolic environment to maximise energy in the heart.
During the days-weeks of trabeculae culture, metabolic substrates will be continuously supplied, and trabeculae force output will be recorded. Manipulation of the metabolic substrate supplied to the trabeculae obtained from consenting diabetic and non-diabetic patients will be made. This will enable them to determine whether poorly contracting trabeculae from diabetic hearts can be “rescued”, matching their function to non-diabetic trabeculae This research will enable them to address the highly important and ever-growing healthcare challenge of diabetic heart disease, and how best to improve heart contractility in diabetic patients.