Anatomy of Success: Three Researchers, Three Grants, One Goal

Listen to all episodes of the Researchers Under the Scope podcast. 

Researchers Under the Scope is produced by the Office of the Vice-Dean Research in the College of Medicine.

From the laboratory to saving lives, this episode brings together three outstanding researchers from the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology (APP) as they discuss their work and its implications for cardiac care. APP is a deparment within the College of Medicine.

Dr. Michelle Collins (PhD), Dr. Scott Widenmaier (PhD), and Dr. Changting Xiao (PhD) are all recent recipients of research grants from Heart & Stroke (formerly the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada).

In Canada, one per cent of newborns have congenital heart defects. Thanks to advances in cardiac care, up to 85 per cent of these infants now survive to adulthood.

Meredith Rhinas is one of those survivors. Diagnosed with aortic stenosis as an infant, by her thirties, she received conflicting guidance from cardiologists, and risked congestive heart failure giving birth. She underwent open-heart surgery to replace her aortic valve after delivering her fourth and final child, surgery that led to further complications caused by an oversized replacement valve.

“That’s a piece that is missing,” said Rhinas, who said most heart attack protocols still skew toward older men -- often overlooking younger patients and women of childbearing age.  

“I want the research to catch up."

In this episode Dr. Michelle Collins, an expert in the molecular basis of cardiac development and function, discusses her work on congenital heart defects, seeking to understand what makes a heart beat.

With her lab’s focus on the movement of calcium ions and their role in heart function, Collins emphasizes the importance of understanding cardiac arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation, which has traditionally been viewed as an electrical disease.

“There’s a significant contribution from genes that are really early transcription factors that build the heart during development,” Collins said.

Dr. Scott Widenmaier's work looks at the liver, an organ he has dubbed "the Amazon of our body", as it presents our first line of defence against stressors, which often are a precursor to heart disease. 

In this episode, Widenmaier explains how and why those stress defense mechanisms can be harnessed to prevent the conditions that lead to heart disease and stroke. 

"Things are happening way quicker, way faster, and the technology's there. The ability to find the genetic variants is there," Widenmaier said. "There's hope in that.”

Dr. Changting Xiao, known for his innovative work on gut physiology and metabolism, explores the gut’s role in lipid processing and its implications for heart disease.

"We want to understand how these enterocytes process the fat inside the cells," said Xiao.  His research aims to identify druggable targets within the gut to correct lipid disorders and combat heart disease.

Xiao passionately believes in the ancient wisdom that "all disease starts in the gut," asserting that a deeper understanding of gut functions can lead to breakthroughs in preventing and treating heart conditions.

"Every small step we move forward looks small, but in the long run we build knowledge and we move forward," said Xiao. His laboratory is now one of only a handful worldwide specializing in being able to see both sides of nutrients entering and leaving the gut.

With awards being administered through a rigorous national peer-review process, Carolyn Cyr praised Saskatchewan's researchers for rising to the top. She’s the province’s Director of Health Policy and Systems for Heart & Stroke.

"It’s definitely something to celebrate,” said Cyr.  "It's a testament to the excellent research they're doing and the high calibre of their applications that we have three researchers from the same department who are able to be funded.”