Research Goals

Research projects at CBRTC cover the entire spectrum from molecular and cellular processes to mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias in patients. The cross-disciplinary structure of CBRTC promotes collaborations between researchers and clinicians and fosters a multiple-approach strategy to the study, diagnosis and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Approaches include single-cell and whole-animal experiments, mathematical modeling and computer simulations, and patient studies during catheterization and open-heart surgery. Among the state-of-the-art techniques employed are biomolecular structural analysis, patch clamp recordings from single ionic channels, ion-selective electrode measurements, high resolution electrical mapping and optical mapping of cardiac activation, supercomputing and computer graphics, imaging, signal processing and image analysis.

The research efforts at CBRTC constitute a balance between basic, biophysical research of cellular mechanisms of arrhythmias and more applied research directed towards the development of new diagnostic tools and methods of treatment. The more applied efforts include the development of modeling approaches to the design of antiarrhythmic drugs, of a new electrocardiographic imaging modality, of electrocardiographic screening of patients at high risk, and of catheter-based diagnosis and treatment. 

Education and Training Goals

An important goal of CBRTC is to enhance and promote education and training in biomedical engineering, life sciences, and clinical medicine. The cross-disciplinary structure of CBRTC facilitates a synergistic relationship between training, research and clinical medicine. The educational component of CBRTC builds on the graduate programs in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and on the Fellowship Program in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. Through CBRTC, graduate students and scientists in engineering and life sciences can participate in clinical lectures, seminars, case presentations and clinical procedures such as diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias in the catheterization laboratory. Similarly, post-M.D. clinical fellows can participate in lectures and seminars in the basic science departments and in research projects in the basic science laboratories.