Measuring mitochondrial DNA damage to predict risk of atherosclerosis

Location: King's College London
Award: £76,000
Start date: 01/02/2008
End date: The final report is due in April 2011

Project intentions: The research grant will support a study into better and more economical markers of heart disease. Damage to mitochondrial DNA has been implicated as an important mechanism of ageing and atherosclerosis in mice, and the team propose to investigate the same mechanism in humans by measuring and comparing points of DNA mutation between female twins, assessing how these points correlate with levels of atherosclerotic plaque. The team will also investigate lifestyle factors and assess how useful this test would be in a wider clinical setting.