Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Translational Mission.

The Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was established in 2007 and is focused on advancing our knowledge of cardiovascular diseases and translating these discoveries into effective therapies. The CVRC is currently housed in The Leon and Norma Hess Center for Science and Medicine, a state-ofthe-art clinical and research facility in New York’s Upper East Side. The Center is part of the Mount Sinai Health System, comprised of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and 7 other hospital campuses throughout the New York Metropolitan Area. Since its inception, the CVRC has grown to include ≈75 members composed of physicians, physician-scientists, postdoctoral fellows, research scientists, and technicians. Our team of lead investigators and researchers work across platforms to investigate cardiac and stem cell biology, tissue engineering, vector biology, cardiac physiology, electrophysiology, vascular diseases, metabolic disorders, imaging, and clinical trials. Close collaboration and shared vision among the investigators glean fundamental insights into cardiovascular physiology and pathobiology, which illuminate potential avenues for therapeutic treatment. The Center currently has 2 full professors, 5 associate professors, 10 assistant professors, and 4 instructors in medicine/ cardiology. In 2017, total National Institutes of Health funding increased to >14 million dollars. In addition to 15 R01s, 3 K awards, and an F30, the CVRC is home to 3 Transatlantic Leducq Foundation grants, 4 American Heart Association postdoctoral fellowships, 4 American Heart Association Scientist Development grants, an American Heart Association Strategically Focused Research Network, a Department of Defence Concept Award, and a National Institutes of Health S10 Shared Instrument grant. We have also recently acquired funding from 2 biotechnology companies. Figure shows the junior and senior investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Center. The faculty has a broad range of interests including (1) gene therapy for heart failure, (2) gene-based therapies for arrhythmias, (3) tissue engineering & 3-dimensional bioprinting, (4) post-translational modifications in heart failure, (5) exosomes in cardiac repair, (6) modified RNA as a novel platform for cardiac regeneration, (7) diabetic cardiomyopathy, (8) adeno-associated vector (AAV) biology, (9) atherosclerosis and vascular biology, (10) fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD), (11) metabolomics and proteomics, and (12) large animal models of cardiovascular diseases. Leadership The Center is the brainchild of Dr Valentin Fuster and Dr Roger J. Hajjar. Their vision was to create a world-class research center with the resources and infrastructure to tackle the most pressing issues in cardiovascular disease. Dr Fuster is Physician-in-Chief at The Mount Sinai Health System, as well as Director of Mount Sinai Heart. In addition, Dr Fuster is the General Director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Investigation in Madrid, Spain. The CVRC is directed by Dr Roger J. Hajjar, MD, and under his leadership, it has grown into a vibrant center of discovery and treatment. The CVRC is under the umbrella of the Cardiovascular Institute and is closely aligned with Mount Sinai Heart, with vast inpatient and outpatient clinical services that treat a complete range of cardiovascular disorders and promote cardiovascular health. In addition to directing the Center, Dr Hajjar is the Arthur & Janet C. Ross Professor of Medicine and a clinically trained cardiologist and heart failure/transplant specialist. His laboratory has extensive experience studying cardiac physiology in both in vitro and in vivo models with a long-standing research program targeting signaling pathways in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. His group has developed a number of methodologies for cardiac gene transfer, and these techniques have been adopted by a large number of investigators in the field. Furthermore, he has used multi-imaging modalities to characterize the various models of cardiovascular diseases and the effects of various gene transfer experiments on the physiological function in these models.