Dysfunctional cardiac signaling mechanisms and signals astray are considered major causes of pathologic myocardial hypertrophy and predisposition to heart failure. Dissecting the function of autocrine/paracrine growth factors as well as kinases that regulate signaling cascades may provide important new knowledge as a basis for the development of new and more effective therapeutic intervention in heart failure.

Our research group focuses on two major aims:

1. Uncover the function of autocrine/paracrine myocardial mediators that are activated or induced in heart failure. Currently, the focus is on CCN2/CTGF - connective tissue growth factor, a multipotent CCN growth factor that is induced in heart failure of various etiologies.
2. Provide novel insights into the function of myocardial G protein-coupled receptor kinases, i.e. a family of kinases that are important proximal modulators of many receptor-controlled signal transduction pathways involved in regulation of myocardial function and growth.