Center for Cardiometabolic Science - Five converging paths into

Momentum

$3.9M NIH R01—to the Carll Lab to study ventricular arrhythmias

Recent discoveries—from the Wysoczynski Lab about neutrophils after heart attacks

$640K NIH Equipment grant—Sciex 7500+ for the Metabolic Profiling Core (Hellmann)

Integrated Omics Core opened: July 2026

Cardiovascular Structure & Function

How the heart is built, and how disease unbuilds it.

The question: what structural and molecular changes carry the heart from compensated remodeling into failure, and can that trajectory be reversed?

Anchors: JONES MOORE
Secondaries: Baba, Carll, Collins, Gibb, Hellmann, Hill, Wysoczynski

Large data figure from recently published paper.

The Jones lab is mapping how hyaluronan is made and degraded as the heart remodels, alongside a Circulation Research atlas from Center faculty charting how cardiac cell populations shift after infarction.

Metabolism & Bioenergetics

The heart runs on fuel. When the fuel mix changes, so does the heart.

The question: how does substrate metabolism shift as the heart remodels, and which shifts are adaptive versus pathological?

Anchors: GIBB HILL
Secondaries: Baba, Collins, Hellmann, Jones

Using a preclinical rat model of HFpEF, the Gibb lab identified disrupted mitochondrial function as a driver of the disease, not just a downstream consequence.

Inflammation

Every cardiac injury triggers an immune response. What that response does next determines the outcome.

The question: what governs the transition from acute immune activation to resolution versus chronic, maladaptive inflammation?

Anchors: HELLMANN WYSOCZYNSKI
Secondaries: Baba, Hill, Jones, Sears

Figure of flow cytometry data from Wysoczynski's paper.

The Wysoczynski lab showed that neutrophils occupying the heart after MI are mature cells reprogrammed in place, not immature cells recruited from the bone marrow.

Physiologic Adaptation

The heart adapts to changes in exercise and sleep, and perhaps pregnancy, using some of the same machinery it uses to survive disease.

The question: what separates physiological cardiac growth from the pathological growth that leads to failure?

Anchors: BABA COLLINS SEARS
Secondaries: Gibb, Hill, Jones

The Baba lab's recent paper argues skeletal muscle remodeling, not the heart alone, drives the exercise intolerance in heart failure.

Environmental Cardiology

The heart doesn't just respond to genes and lifestyle. It responds to what's in the air we breathe.

The question: how do environmental exposures damage the vasculature before disease shows up on a chart?

Anchors: CARLL CONKLIN HABERZETTL
Secondaries: Hellmann

Image of the experimental setup for cardiac arrhythmias.

The Carll lab recently showed that e-cigarette cooling ingredients may be linked to irregular heartbeat and cardiac arrest, coverage the AHA picked up directly.

Five converging paths into cardiometabolic disease. One collaborative engine.