[CCHF Membership Roster] [CCHF Meeting Rosters]

The Cardiac Contractility, Hypertrophy, and Failure [CCHF] Study Section reviews applications that involve basic, applied and translational aspects of heart function, homeostasis and disease.  Applications focus on contractile function and dysfunction, including studies of hereditary and acquired cardiac hypertrophy and failure, at levels ranging from molecular assemblies to the intact organ to translation of novel therapies to human. Specific areas covered by CCHF:

• The basic molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cardiac hypertrophy and failure: myocyte growth, proliferation, metabolism and apoptosis; receptor signaling; transcriptional pathways; inflammatory/ cytokine-mediated processes.
• Systolic and diastolic function/dysfunction: adaptation to abnormal hemodynamic load and ventricular mechanics; mechanical signal transduction; stress-strain relationships; effects of therapeutic interventions such as pacing, ventricular assist devices and others; valvular heart disease.
• Myocardial remodeling and fibrosis: extracellular matrix reorganization and collagen metabolism; cytoskeleton.
• Cardiac myocyte contractile function: sarcomeric proteins; calcium regulation and signaling; calcium-force relationship; arrythmia-related causes of remodeling and heart failure.
• Cardiac repair: cell-based and gene therapy as it relates to contractility and remodeling; capillary density; changes in ventricular and cellular function that result from heart transplantation.
• Genetic cardiomyopathies; genotype-phenotype correlation; genomic and proteomic approaches to cardiac hypertrophy and failure.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Myocardial Ischemia and Metabolism [MIM]
Cardiovascular Differentiation and Development [CDD] 
Electrical Signaling, Ion Transport, and Arrhythmias [ESTA] 
Surgical Sciences, Biomedical Imaging, and Bioengineering [SBIB] IRG 
Biology of Development and Aging [BDA] IRG