Precision diagnosis and therapy in cardiac channelopathies (PACE)

Contact Investigator: 

Prof. Dr. med. Katja Odening, Department of Cardiology & Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital / University of Bern. For more information, please visit the websites of Department of Physiology and Department of Cardiology.

Co-Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Dr. med. Christiane Zweier, Department of Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital / University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Co-Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Nadia Mercader, Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Co-Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Jean-Louis Reymond, Department for Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, University of Bern. For more information, please visit the website.

Young Investigator:

Prof. Dr. Marco Osterwalder, Department of Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bern. For more information, please visite the website. 

Ion-channels in cardiac muscle cells control electrical impulses and are required for normal heart function. Mutations in ion-channel genes cause cardiac diseases, called genetic channelopathies. They represent a major cause for serious arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in young individuals. It is therefore important to improve early diagnosis and risk prediction and develop efficient therapies. Despite known gene-specific differences in disease-severity, current risk stratification and therapy is not yet gene-specific.

PACE will combine clinical and genetic data with innovative in vivo and in vitro models to improve personalized gene-specific risk prediction and treatment of channelopathies to ultimately prevent lethal arrhythmias.