Daniel Judge, MD, on Translational Gene Therapy for Cardiac Disorders

We’re realizing more and more that people who have unexplained weakness or thickness in their heart, cardiomyopathy, have that on a genetic basis. It may not be available when you look at their family, you may not see others with the same condition, but when you look at a genetic level, more and more we’re identifying specific genes that are altered.

Daniel Judge, MD, a professor of medicine in cardiology at the Medical University of South Carolina, believes that the application of exciting translational science in cardiovascular diseases will lead to new, groundbreaking genetic therapies for people with heart failure and cardiomyopathy.

Judge is leading a large-scale community research initiative that will collect genetic data from 100,000 people to assess for actionable information related to certain types of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The data will only further help Judge and others like him better understand how genetics play a role in underlying disease, and may help to eventually develop novel treatments.

In an interview with CGTLive, Judge discusses some of the translational science that has him especially excited, including applications of gene editing and silencing for cardiology-related disorders.