Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2009

Mentor: Pradeep P.A. Mammen, MD
Department: Cardiology/Internal Medicine
Room number: NB10.228
Mail Code: MC 9047
Phone number: 214-648-4994
E-mail: pradeep.mammen@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Role of Hemoproteins in Modulating Oxidative Stress in Heart Failure
Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): Not Applicable

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 1078-07-01-1 and 1078-07-02-1.

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Brief Description of Project:

My clinical and scientific interests revolve around the treatment and management of patients with heart failure and the molecular mechanisms underlying this clinical entity. In particular, research in my laboratory focuses on enhancing our understanding of how regulation of the metabolic and redox states of myocytes can be modulated to serve as potential therapeutic targets for various myopathies (skeletal and cardiac myopathies). Over the years, we have engineered several novel knockout and transgenic mice to further our understanding of proteins that regulate the metabolic and redox states within the heart. An enhanced understanding of the functional roles of these proteins will provide opportunities for the development of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of patients with advanced heart failure.

Specifically, there are two ongoing research projects that may be of interest to a medical student for a summer project and they are as follows:

1. Investigate the mechanism by which myoglobin regulates cardiac growth.

2. Investigate the cardioprotective role of cytoglobin in regulating the redox state in stressed heart and during muscle regeneration.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

During the Summer of 2008, three medical students worked in the Mammen laboratory. Bryan Reyes (presently a UTSW MII) contributed to the project focused on the role of cytoglobin in muscle regeneration. Adrian Salinas (presently a UTSW MII) and Sudhir Thotakura (presently a Texas Tech MII) contributed to the project focused on the role of myoglobin in cardiac hypertrophy. All three of these students contributed significant amount of data to their respective projects that they all will be co-authors on manuscripts that are being prepared for publication.

Finally, Amanda McGrath was an undergraduate student from the University of North Texas who worked with the PI to initially characterize the gene expression pattern of cytoglobin. She worked in the laboratory at nights and weekends over a 2 year time period (2003-2005). Her hard work resulted in authorship of a manuscript that was published in 2006 and the reference for this manuscript is listed below:

Mammen P.P.A., J.M Shelton, Q. Ye, S.B. Kanatous, A.J. McGrath, J.A. Richardson, and D.J. Garry. Cytoglobin: A novel stress-responsive hemoprotein that is expressed in the developing and adult brain. Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry 2006; 54(12): 1349-1361.