Sen. Marshall Announces Funding to Wichita State University for Heart Disease Research

(Washington, D.C., August 11, 2021) – Today, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded over $400,000 to Wichita State University (WSU) that will help advance new strategies to detect and treat cardiac disease. 

“Heart disease and stroke are still the leading causes of death for both men and women in America,” said Senator Marshall. “This research may afford newfound insight on how to combat cardiomyopathy, and I commend Wichita State University for their efforts to better understand this disease.”

Background:

The project, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, aims to understand the role certain proteins play in cardiac muscle function, structure, and disease. Specifically, the WSU research team will take a deep dive on myopalladin, a type of protein that helps with muscle growth. However, when it mutates, it can cause major health problems. Mutations of myopalladin have recently been linked to cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens your heart by reducing your body’s ability to pump blood to the heart. If left untreated, it can lead to irregular heartbeats and heart failure.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Decades of research have provided fundamental insight into the human heart’s structure and function. Yet, most cardiac malformations remain a mystery as scientists and clinicians continue to examine how inherited mutations and aging affect the normal biological functions of proteins associated with cardiac dysfunction. According to the research team, their work will hopefully lead to the development of new strategies to detect and treat cardiac disease. It will also provide invaluable learning experiences for the students at Wichita State University’s Beck Lab. This three-year project will be led by Dr. Moriah Beck who serves WSU an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. In total, WSU received $428,473.

Throughout his time in Congress, Dr. Marshall has supported robust funding for research to better understand how disease occurs. Success in research leads to medical breakthroughs that equip physicians and other health care providers with the best tools and medicine that save lives. More recently, Dr. Marshall supported the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 which provides annual federal funding for this fiscal year. Funds from this award were provided through this Act.

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