UTHealth Houston to Lead a $4M Study on Heart Failure in Hispanic Americans

Professor Bing Yu, PhD, with the Department of Epidemiology at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, has been awarded a $4.1 million R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to lead a four-year study investigating heart failure in Hispanic and Latino populations.

Heart failure, an end stage of heart disease, remains a growing public health concern, especially among Hispanic Americans, who face high rates of comorbidities such as obesity and diabetes, which are key drivers of systemic inflammation. While a few biomarkers have been identified for heart failure, data from Hispanic and Latino populations are limited. The study aims to identify protein markers, specifically inflammatory proteins, that are associated with impaired cardiac function and its progression over time, by leveraging the state-of-the-art proteomic profiling technology, which performs a large-scale examination of proteins that underlie biological and disease processes and mechanisms.

Yu and a team of researchers are studying thousands of proteins in the body to better understand how heart problems, like heart failure, begin and develop. Their work could also help identify on how other health conditions that often occur alongside heart disease are connected at a molecular level.

“We are grateful to receive funding to conduct an in-depth study of the mechanisms underlying cardiac dysfunction, with the goal of improving heart failure prevention,” said Yu, principal investigator and co-director of the Human Genetics Center at the School of Public Health. The team will explore the genetic determinants of cardiac function-related proteins and examine how genetic variations contribute to cardiac dysfunction and the onset of heart failure.

“We anticipate identifying a set of inflammatory proteins, regulated by specific genes, that influence the onset of heart failure and may serve as potential targets for its prediction and treatment,” Yu said.

Yu  is the JLH Foundation Distinguished Chair In Transplant Prevention at the School of Public Health. Her interests include discovering novel molecular biomarkers, identifying biological pathways of cardiopulmonary disease, and understanding the disproportionate disease burden in the general population.

Co-investigators from the School of Public Health include Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Alanna Morrison, PhD, and faculty associate Megan Grove, MS.