Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) awarded the University of California Irvine $235,500 in project grant funding under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) effective July 1, 2026, with a completion date of March 31, 2028. The award funds research investigating cardiac complications in female carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), specifically examining how dystrophin deficiency contributes to dilated cardiomyopathy. The research employs human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes from female carriers to conduct functional analyses of calcium handling, mechanical contraction, and cell viability under both chronic and acute stress conditions. Additionally, the project will evaluate the role of mosaic dystrophin expression patterns in two-dimensional and three-dimensional cardiac tissue models to identify mechanistic pathways and inform therapeutic strategies for preventing heart failure progression.

The deliverables under this project grant consist of research findings and scientific insights into how the mosaic pattern of dystrophin expression in female carrier hearts drives cardiomyocyte dysfunction. The work generates comparative functional characterization data between dystrophin-expressing and dystrophin-deficient cardiomyocytes, cell viability assessments under stress conditions, and tissue-level analysis of mosaic expression effects. These research products directly support the NHLBI program's objective of funding hypothesis-driven mechanistic research across the cardiovascular disease spectrum and contribute to the knowledge base for developing interventions to mitigate cardiac disease progression in this underrecognized patient population.