CU prof given grant to study heart failure

BOULDER – University of Colorado-Boulder professor Leslie Leinwand received a $45,837 grant to study a protein that causes heart failure in adults and children.

Leinwand plans to use the grant from the Children’s Cardiomyopathy Foundation to study the differences in myosin mutations between adults and children. Myosin is a protein that makes the heart muscle contract. Many myosin mutations cause a disease called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common genetic heart disease and the leading cause of sudden death in young people. The heart muscle becomes thickened in parts of the body of people who have the disease, forcing the…