Cardiomyopathy is a leading cause of heart failure in children, and there are currently no effective treatments. Could emerging therapies that successfully target the root cause of the condition in adults also work well in children? That was the question Dr....
In the realm of cardiac health, an exciting new study has cast light on the intricate details of our hearts, revealing significant differences between the left and right ventricles' fibroblasts. This research, conducted by a team of dedicated scientists from the...
For children diagnosed with complex heart conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the diagnosis can be frightening for families and challenging for healthcare providers since the trajectory of the condition is often uncertain. As a leading cause of sudden...
An innovative cardiovascular start-up, HDAX Therapeutics, is the latest company to win $250,000 in funding following another year of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research’s Entrepreneurship for Cardiovascular Health Opportunities (ECHO) program. The ECHO program...
Several members of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR) participated in Vascular 2023, a five-day conference held in Montreal from October 25-29. The conference is a hallmark event organized by several Canadian specialist and research organizations,...
Researchers at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research have developed an innovative approach to better understanding the complex signaling mechanisms underlying heart failure. A recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) offers...
The Ted Rogers Centre funds two biobanks containing extensive collections of human blood and cardiovascular tissue specimens at our children and adult hospital partners.
We recognize a biobank’s extraordinary and unique value in spurring the types of novel research ideas we need to combat heart failure. Both rich repositories contain associated sample data and are managed according to professional standards.
We thank patients who have contributed their own biospecimens for their voluntary support of heart failure research.
The SickKids Heart Centre Biobank, funded by the Ted Rogers Centre, is among the largest international biorepositories for childhood onset heart disease in the world. It was established in 2008, the first of its kind in Ontario.
The biobank has over 10,000 participants of all ages, spanning children and adults, and involves multiple sites across Ontario. It provides researchers and clinicians access to vital genetic samples and data – an invaluable resource for studying the genetic and environmental causes of heart failure, pursuing personalized care, and developing new treatments.
Samples from over half of participants have already been accessed in support of over 70 studies locally, nationally and internationally.
The Peter Munk Cardiac Centre Cardiovascular Biobank is a key resource in empowering translational research within and beyond the Ted Rogers Centre. It is one of the first biobanks registered with the Research Ethics Board and includes an oversight committee staffed by experts in various disciplines who can judge the quality and validity of any proposed study.
As of 2022, the biobank team had consented 17,000 patients from 12 clinics across University Health Network. It now stores over 275,000 of their samples – a figure that rises by about 50,000 each year.
Through such patient participation, the biobank can support investigators seeking to decipher how heart disease progresses at molecular and genetic levels, discover new biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes, and identify new therapeutic targets. It is now used as a service for a wide variety of clinical trials.
