Breakthrough Study of Atrial Fibrillation Genetics

A breakthrough study – the largest meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for atrial fibrillation to date — was recently published in Nature Genetics. St. David’s Medical Center’s Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute medical and research directors Andrea Natale, MD and Sanghamitra Mohanty, MD were members collaborated with over 100 colleagues, including the Broad Institute of MIT, Harvard. The clinical research data from more than 500,000 individuals identified 97 loci associated with A-fib, including 67 new biomarkers. This study will significantly extend our understanding of the biological pathways underlying A-Fib and could facilitate the development of therapeutics as well.