The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) and Cellular Dynamics International (CDI) have announced receipt of a research grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to investigate the mechanisms underlying Left Ventricular Hypertrophy.

The MCW and CDI will use the funds, totaling $6.26 million over five years, to generate 250 induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from blood samples drawn from Caucasian and African-American families in the Hypertension Genetic Epidemiology Network (HyperGEN).

"This grant builds on years of our research to identify genes for this disease. We now have the wonderful opportunity to capitalize on the latest stem cell technology to study human heart cells in the laboratory," said Ulrich Broeckel, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine and Physiology at MCW and Associate Director at the Children's Research Institute.