Projects and Grants

R21-HL097108-01 (Akar)
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: NIH/NHLBI
Period: 07/01/2011 – 06/31/2013
"Integrative investigation of mitochrondrial dysfunction"
The major goal of this grant is to elucidate the role of the benzodiazepine receptor in modulating metabolic, electrical and contractile properties.

RO1-HL091923-01 (Akar)
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: NIH/NHLBI
Period: 01/01/2009 – 12/31/2013
"Mechanisms underlying mitochondrial dysfunction in the diabetic heart"
The main goal of this grant is to investigate mechanisms underlying increase oxidative/nitrosative stresses in the diabetic heart and elucidate their function consequences in terms of contractile and electrical dysfunction at the molecular, cellular and organ levels.

0830126N (Akar)
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: American Heart Association
Period: 01/01/2008 – 12/31/2011
"Gap Junction Targets Modulating Transmural Repolarization and Arrhythmias in Chronic Ischemic Cardiomyopathy"
The main goal of this grant to investigate mechanisms by which repolarization eterogeneities can underlie arrhythmias in a preclinical model of chronic myocardial ischemia, and to develop novel approaches for suppressing these arrhythmias using targeted gene transfer of gap junction related proteins.

1 RO1-HL107376-01 (Yong Zhao PI, Akar Co-Inv)
Agency: NIH/NHLBI
Period: 4/1/2011 – 3/31/2016
"miR-1-2 function in cardiac conduction system development and maintenance"
The major goal of this grant to determine how miR-1-2 regulates specification and proliferation of cardiac conduction system and how miR-1-2 establishes a precise level of calcium signaling, ion channels, and connexins during differentiation and maintenance of the CCS. In this project, we proposed to use miR-1-2 floxed allele, Hcn4-CreET2 knock-in mice, and Irx3-CreET2 mice to specifically delete miR-1-2 in the CCS.

08-1310 (Akar)
Agency: Imra T. Hirschl and Monique Weill-Caulier Trust
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: 01/01/2009 – 12/31/2013
"Novel imaging techniques for investigating arrhythmia mechanisms"
The main goal of this grant is to develop and validate novel imaging techniques for quantitatively measure key subcellular events with high spatio-temporal resolution in the intact heart.