The Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis has received a $200,000 grant from the Department of Defense to study a common congenital heart defect in babies.
With coarctation of the aorta, the aorta narrows, restricting blood flow to vital organs. The condition can develop by itself or alongside other heart defects. Currently, the only way to treat the condition is with surgery, after which patients may experience lifelong complications and risks.
Benjamin Landis, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric cardiology, and Yunlong Liu, PhD, director of the IU center for computational biology and bioinformatics, will use the grant to study single-cell RNA sequencing of aortic tissue surgically removed from infants who have the condition, which they hope will one day lead to nonsurgical treatment, according to a Feb. 1 press release.