Research report 2011 - Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research
Heart and Lung – from Development to Therapy
Authors
Barreto, Guillermo; Dobreva, Gergana; Engel, Felix B.; Savai, Rajkumar
Departments
Unabhängige Arbeitsgruppen
Summary
Heart and lung diseases represent a major disease burden and socioeconomic problem. Ischemic heart disease is the leading single cause of mortality, congenital heart disease the most common type of birth defect and lung cancer the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Current therapeutic efforts to treat those diseases are limited to the symptoms and rarely target the primary cause. Therefore it is important to develop better tools for early diagnosis and novel therapeutic strategies, e.g. through a better understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of heart and lung development.