University of Albany Scientist Studies Molecules to Understand Cardiac Arrhythmia

The study of small things could some day lead to big discoveries.
Haijun Chen spends countless hours in his new lab at the University at Albany, studying cells extracted from frog eggs or cardiac cells from mice and guinea pigs, looking at how what he refers to as "his molecules" behave.

His field is molecular physiology, and he concentrates on studying a group of molecules in the heart known to play a part in cardiac arrhythmia, better known as irregular heartbeat. The research is part of a four-year $260,000 American Heart Association National Scientist Development Grant.

In the past, the work scientists such as Chen, an assistant professor of biological sciences who got his start in his native China, have been doing in the field of biomedical research has led to breakthroughs in cardiac arrhythmia. Some of the discoveries have kept drugs off the market that would ultimately lead to cardiac arrhythmia-related death.

"The situation is much better than 10 years ago -- 10 years ago we didn't understand the issues. This all came from biomedical research," he says. "Ten, 15 years ago, people don't understand why cardiac arrhythmia happens, nobody knew what was the mechanism."

Search for cause

Studies have led scientists to understand that problems with specific molecules in the heart -- either there because of genetics or triggered by pharmaceutical use -- are the cause of irregular heartbeat.

Because of that research, safety testing of new drugs under development has improved, Chen says. Now, Chen says, new drugs must be tested on that group of molecules in a lab before a drug can be approved for the first stage of a clinic trial.

Chen's research under the heart association grant, which he is halfway through and began when he was working in a lab at Yale Medical School, builds on that, as he further studies a specific family of cardiac molecules to understand their function under both normal and diseased conditions. He came to the University at Albany in the fall, drawn there by a tenure-track position and funding to set up his own laboratory.

The second stage in his research will look at whether specific cardiac molecules may help protect the heart from damage during a cardiac event, such as stroke or heart failure.

"The next level is to try to do some mechanics of how other molecules in a similar family contribute to cardiac protection," he says. "It's the next level of medicine."

Roots in China

Chen started as a biomedical engineering student at China's Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He changed his focus to medical school after he was observing a dialysis machine with a group of fellow students and met a young patient who needed a kidney transplant. He was saddened to know the patient wasn't likely to get the necessary surgery because the procedure was rarely done in China during the 1980s. He thought he could make more of a difference in medicine than in engineering.

After graduating from medical university and later earning his doctorate in physiology in Germany, Chen headed to the Yale School of Medicine, where he studied molecular cardiology.

There, he began focusing his work on cardiac molecules. It's also where he learned about the amazing potential in molecular-level research, but also the unfortunate truth about funding for science.
During his time at Yale, he says the program lost a significant amount of National Institutes of Health funding, forcing his lab to cut its research staff by half. Even today, though he says he's fortunate to have the national grant from the heart association, he's limited in his work by the need for additional funds. Each piece of new equipment can cost tens of thousands of dollars. His one and only lab assistant started just a couple months ago.

"I have many ideas, and I don't have enough money to test the hypotheses," he says.

After hitting a high in 2004, the NIH budget has declined every year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit international group dedicated to advancing the field. Should proposals for 2009 go through, NIH funding would stand at 13 percent below what it was in 2004, if adjusted to reflect inflation, in biomedical research.

Meanwhile, the American Heart Association is second only to the government in cardiovascular disease and stroke research funding, investing more than $1 billion during the past 10 years and more than $2.7 billion since 1948, says Jeff Foley, senior director of research promotion for the association. He says that so far, heart association funding has led to the discovery and development of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, stents and clot-busting drugs.

"It won't happen overnight, though. It could be that -- years down the road -- Dr. Chen or another scientist utilizes the findings from Dr. Chen's current research," Foley says. "Each piece of research builds upon previous research and puts us closer to the answers that will end heart disease and stroke. With this in mind, we must continue funding heart disease- and stroke-related research at an aggressive pace."

Chen says his work isn't likely to directly lead to any cures for heart disease. It's just one small part of the wide-reaching molecular research being done by scientists around the world.

But together, these studies -- focused on a microscopic part of the human body -- can lead to big things.Haijun Chen
Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences

PhD, Max Planck Institute/
Friedrich-Schiller University (2000)

Office: LS 2077
Lab: LS 2065
Office Phone: (518) 591-8854
E-Mail: hchen01@albany.edu

Courtesy: Jennifer Gish