The heart of genomics

Cardioinformatics: the nexus of bioinformatics and precision cardiology

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, causing over 17 million deaths per year, which outpaces global cancer mortality rates. Despite these sobering statistics, most bioinformatics and computational biology research and funding to date has been concentrated predominantly on cancer research, with a relatively modest footprint in CVD. In this paper, we review the existing literary landscape and critically assess the unmet need to further develop an emerging field at the multidisciplinary interface of bioinformatics and precision cardiovascular medicine, which we refer to as 'cardioinformatics'.

Cardiovascular genomics

The ongoing explosion of genomic information is revolutionizing cardiovascular science. More complete genomic maps allow easier identification of genes that cause monogenic inherited diseases. In addition, analyses of variations in gene expression in cardiovascular diseases are revealing new potential candidate genes as well as novel biomarkers for many common, multifactorial diseases. While experiments are revealing new pathophysiologic pathways, these genomic studies are also generating enormous amounts of data. Even as we learn how to sift through mountains of genomic information, new technologies in proteomics are rapidly advancing and promise to provide additional critical tools for diagnosis and for identifying new therapies.