Strengthening research at the Heart - SingHealth

2 downloads 229 Views 67KB Size Report
biggest human gene that leads to heart muscle weakness. This discovery paves ... jump-start the local effort together wi
Prof Stuart Alexander Cook

Strengthening Research at the Heart Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. In Singapore, it accounted for one in three deaths in 2010. But with ground-breaking research by clinician scientists such as Prof Stuart Alexander Cook, there is now greater optimism for patients with cardiovascular disease as we develop new ways of preventing, diagnosing, and treating it. Prof Stuart Alexander Cook, Distinguished Clinician Scientist and Senior Consultant, Department of Cardiology, believes in the importance of translational and clinical research to improve patients’ lives. Prof Cook has, in his illustrious career, carved a significant reputation for his research in cardiovascular disease, with a focus on genes that cause electrical abnormalities in the heart. FY 2012 has been a momentous year for Prof Cook – he received the Singapore Translational Research (STaR) Investigator Award at the National Medical Research Council Awards, and in collaboration with Harvard University, he and his team identified mutations in Titin, the biggest human gene that leads to heart muscle weakness. This discovery paves the way for the development of a diagnostics kit, and possible treatment in the longer term. The research finding was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Yet another new NHCS study that Prof Cook is involved in aims to find out how scarring happens in the heart through the observation of fibroblasts, cells that make scars.

134

With the initiation of the NHCS-Duke-NUS Heart Cell Bank which models a similar programme in the UK for which he was also responsible, Prof Cook will jump-start the local effort together with a team of NHCS researchers who will conduct genetic studies on heart cells to understand heart disease progression, causes, and treatments. “The NHCS-Duke-NUS Heart Cell Bank is a resource for the future,” said Prof Cook. He believes such research has enormous potential to better patient care as we gain a deeper understanding of the disease in the local context. To further our Academic Medicine pursuit, Prof Cook plays a supportive role in encouraging clinicians at NHCS to embrace both clinical and research work. “While it may be challenging for clinicians to juggle these, it is vital that we acknowledge the importance of research,” he said, lauding the close collaboration between NHCS and the Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders Signature Research Program at Duke-NUS for growing a critical mass of researchers for heart disease. The new NHCS building, slated to open in 2014, will also provide enhanced clinical and research support that complements Duke-NUS’, which will be a boon to research efforts. Also a clinician mentor specialising in imaging at the Academic Medicine Research Institute, Prof Cook said: “Mentorship is essential. Without a mentor, I would not have become a clinician scientist today. Some may think that research is easy, but the truth is that it isn’t. If you don’t get the right training and advice, you will find it hard to succeed. That is why mentorship is important.”