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NIH Awards ACHRI Researcher Grant to ID Heart Defects Genes

Publication Date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008

LITTLE ROCK, ARK. (Sept. 30, 2008) – The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $648,000 grant to an Arkansas Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI) investigator to identify common genetic variants that are associated with specific congenital heart defects.

Sadia Malik, MD, MPH, will use the five-year grant to investigate underlying genetic risks associated with septal heart defects. Malik, a cardiologist at ACH and an associate professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine, has been studying the connection between a mother’s smoking habit and her baby’s risk of heart defects for several years.

Her latest study, funded by NIH, will look at how specific genetic variants, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), increase the risk for a woman to have a baby with a heart defect. The study will be performed by faculty within the Birth Defects Research Section of the UAMS Department of Pediatrics, and the Hobbs Birth Defects Genomics Laboratory at ACHRI and the Arkansas Center for Birth Defects. Genetic profiles that are identified will be used in future projects to establish a birth defects prevention program that potential parents could follow before they conceive.

Malik’s past research, recently published in the journal Pediatrics, has shown that a mother’s history of smoking during pregnancy significantly increases her baby’s risk of atrial and ventricular septal heart defects, which account for nearly 50 percent of all congenital heart defects in infants. Congenital heart defects are the most serious and frequent of all recognized birth defects, occurring in eight to 10 of every 1,000 live U.S. births.

Malik will employ new genomic tools provided by the Human Genome Project and the International HapMap Project. She also will examine data on infants with heart defects identified by the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS). The NBDPS is one of the largest case-control studies ever done on the causes of birth defects.

The study will be supported, in part, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the major research component of the Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital is the only pediatric medical center in Arkansas and one of the largest in the United States serving children from birth to age 21. The campus spans 28 city blocks and houses 316 beds, a staff of approximately 500 physicians, 80 residents in pediatrics and pediatric specialties and more than 4,000 employees. The private, nonprofit healthcare facility boasts an internationally renowned reputation for medical breakthroughs and intensive treatments, unique surgical procedures and forward-thinking medical research - all dedicated to fulfilling our mission of enhancing, sustaining and restoring children's health and development. ACH recently ranked No. 76 on FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For®. For more information, visit www.archildrens.org.

ACHRI provides a research environment on the ACH campus to meet the needs of the UAMS faculty.  Research scientists at ACHRI conduct clinical, basic science, and health services research for the purpose of treating illnesses, preventing disease and improving the health of children everywhere.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,538 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging.

It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,600 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. For more information, visit www.uams.edu.

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