At the big-picture level, we understand the risk factors for a heart attack, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, and genetics. We also know that a heart attack is caused when plaque buildup in the wall of a coronary artery ruptures and blocks the blood vessel. What

Researcher Thomas Lagace, PhD, first came across the protein PCSK9 as a postdoctoral fellow, never guessing that it would become the focus of his career. While starting his post-doc at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, he was placed “kind of kicking and screaming,” as he put it, on a

The good news is that their hearts are in the right place. Women in Canada see themselves as their families’ “heart keepers,” playing a significant role in maintaining everyone’s heart health, whether it’s the food they serve, the physical activity they encourage, or the non-smoking households they

[Editor’s note: This article is an update of a previously published story.] Heart disease is the leading cause of death for women worldwide, yet it remains under-diagnosed and symptoms often go unrecognized. In July of this year, the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Centre published the results of a

[Editor’s note: This article is an update of previously published story.] Nearly one in every 100 babies is born with some form of congenital heart disease (CHD). In the 1950s, only about 15% of these children with severe heart defects reached their 18th birthday. Today, with advances in treatment

Finding a gene associated with disease is one thing. Understanding how it increases the likelihood of contracting that disease can be quite another, especially a complex condition like heart disease. After five years, Heart Institute researchers now know how one genetic variant works and suspect