CCS News
Research Project Focuses on Developing A Panel Of Biomarkers for HCM Through Investigating Samples From Multiple Data Sources
September 17, 2024
Dr. Amritpal Singh, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. He is one of two recipients of the CCS-Bristol Myers Squibb Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) Research Award for his project, A multimodal approach to risk stratification in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
We spoke with Dr. Singh about his research on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) and how researching imaging data, and pieces of surgically-removed heart tissue from HCM patients has the potential to advance our understanding and ability to test for HCM.
Q. How did this project get started?
A. This project started when I met Dr. Zachary Laksman (Cardiac Electrophysiologist at St. Paul’s Hospital) and discussed the promise of improving the current diagnostic approach for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by integrating various data sources. To this end, we hired a PhD student, Mr. Raam Sivakumar who we co-supervise. Mr. Sivakumar has been analyzing cardiac MRI data using image segmentation and developing models to predict HCM outcomes. Under our supervision, he will be leading this project funded by the CCS-BMS HCM Research Award.
Q. What stage are you at in your research?
A. I am an early-career investigator who started at the University of British Columbia in 2022, in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics. I am also a principal investigator at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver.
Q. Can you walk us through what your project entails?
A. The goal of this project is to utilize local HCM registries to develop predictive models of clinical outcomes using cardiac MRIs, and clinical variables (e.g. laboratory values, demographics). We will also perform spatial transcriptomics of septal myectomy samples. This will allow us to quantify the abundance of 6000 gene-transcripts at single-cell resolution with spatial coordinates of individual cells. This data can be overlaid with traditional histology, allowing assignment of regions of fibrosis and its spatial correlation to gene expression changes. The last aim of this project is to develop a computational method to predict fibrosis from spatial gene-expression data.
Q. What knowledge gap will this fill?
A. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common genetic disease with a risk of heart failure and sudden death. There exists a need to develop biomarkers to diagnose, prognose, and monitor HCM progression. We propose to carry out an integrative analysis of clinical data, including imaging, genetics and omics-based analysis of primary HCM tissues. Key insights from our study will establish our multidisciplinary team and enable the later development of a panel of biomarkers that will have a direct impact on clinical care.
Q. What does this fellowship award mean to you, personally?
A. Obtaining the CCS-BMS HCM Research Award is an important milestone in my career thus far, as it will allow me to pursue new research directions. It will alleviate the pressure of paying for a graduate stipend for a year, and generate high resolution molecular data which may provide novel insights into the mechanisms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.