USF Heart Institute
Welcome to the USF Health Heart Institute
We are located in the in the center of Water Street Tampa, a revitalized downtown region where our faculty and students can enjoy a healthy, energy-efficient lifestyle within walking distance of renowned entertainment venues, innovative dining, and outdoor recreational activities.
State-of-the-art laboratories and core facilities supported through National Institutes of Health and other federal grant sources, foundations, industry, and USF-generated resources create a vibrant environment for research. We have a particular interest in recruiting funded scientists with high risk-high potential gain projects, those using cutting-edge technology, and those seeking to unite basic and translational sciences to directly benefit patients.
Whether you are a patient, potential faculty recruit, donor, or citizen of the Tampa Bay region, I invite you to take a look at the faculty accomplishments on this website and join us in supporting research and innovation at the USF Health Heart Institute.
Congratulations to Dr. Liggett!
Dr. Stephen Liggett has been named Distinguished Professor! For more information, please read more here.
Congratulations to Isabella Hetherington!
Isabella Hetherington was awarded the F31 predoctoral fellowship from the NIH NHLBI that aim to develop a novel site-and cell-selective mRNA therapeutic to treat atherosclerosis. She is a PhD student under the mentorship of Dr. Hana Totary-Jain at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Heart Institute.
Congratulations to Dr Wang!
Dr. Da-Zhi Wang's grant titled "Function and Mechanism of the Intercalated Disc Protein XinB in Cardiomyocyte Proliferation and Cardiac Regeneration" was awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on 4/3/2023.
Featured Faculty
Stephen Liggett, MD
Vice Dean for Research, Morsani College of Medicine
Associate Vice President for Research, USF Health
Distinguished
Professor of Internal Medicine
Da-Zhi Wang, PhD
Thomas McDonald, MD
Professor, USF Health Heart Institute
Ganesh Halade, PhD
Associate Professor, USF Health Heart Institute
Articles
The regulation of the informational flow from the mitochondria to the nucleus (mitonuclear communication) is not fully characterized in the heart. We have determined that mitochondrial ribosomal protein S5 (MRPS5/uS5m) can regulate cardiac function and key pathways to coordinate this process during cardiac stress. We demonstrate that loss of Mrps5 in the developing heart leads to cardiac defects and embryonic lethality while postnatal loss induces cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.
In patients with acute coronary syndromes, surgical revascularization with percutaneous coronary intervention has greatly reduced mortality rates. However, stent thrombosis and neo-atherosclerosis have emerged as major safety concerns of drug eluting stents due to delayed re-endothelialization. This review summarizes the major milestones, strengths, and limitations of current anti-atherosclerotic therapies. It provides an overview of the recent discoveries and emerging game-changing technologies in the fields of nanomedicine, mRNA therapeutics, and gene editing that have the potential to revolutionize CVD clinical practice by steering it toward precision medicine.
Hypertension and kidney disease have been repeatedly associated with genomic variants and alterations of lysine metabolism. Here, we combined stable isotope labeling with untargeted metabolomics to investigate lysine’s metabolic fate in vivo. Dietary 13C6 labeled lysine was tracked to lysine metabolites across various organs.
To read more about Accelerated Lysine Metabolism, click here.
Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), encoded by Nppa, is a vasodilatory hormone that promotes salt excretion. Genome-wide association studies identified Nppa as a causative factor of blood pressure development, and in humans, ANP levels were suggested as an indicator of salt sensitivity. This study aimed to provide insights into the effects of ANP on cardiorenal function in salt-sensitive hypertension.