Integration of transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation in dilated cardiomyopathy

We investigate the molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases with a main focus on dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a major cause of congestive heart failure. Genetic factors are known to play an important role in disease etiology but the molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. In order to elucidate the impact of pathogenic variation, we perform RNA-seq and ribosome profiling of cardiac disease tissue. Ribosome profiling is a powerful and novel methodology to obtain qualitative and quantitative information about translation on a genome-wide scale. This technology provides a way to thoroughly investigate translational regulation and to significantly improve the estimate of protein levels compared to traditional gene expression approaches.