In March this year, UCT researchers announced that they had finally pinned down the gene responsible for sudden death among young people and athletes. The CDH2 gene causes Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricle Cardiomyopathy (ARVC), a genetic disorder that predisposes young people to cardiac arrest.
The discovery is expected to permit the diagnosis and possible targeted treatment of heart muscle disease in the future.
Behind the discovery are three young women – 30-year-old PhD student Dr Maryam Fish, 35-year-old Dr Sarah Kraus and 43-year-old Dr Gasnat Shaboodien, deputy director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Unit at UCT, who also supervised Fish with Professor Bongani Mayosi, Dean of Health Sciences at UCT.
Drs Fish, Shaboodien and Kraus will be our guests at Mensa Winelands’ speaker evening on Thursday 18 May, where they will share with us the process and results of their research, hailed the ‘biggest breakthrough in South African cardiology since Dr Chris Barnard’s first heart transplant nearly 50 years ago’.
Further information and venue details from the Winelands secretary, Yvonne Steyn.