CVI’s Biomarker Core Detects Clues to Cardiovascular Disease

October 13, 2023

Biomarkers are measurable clues found in the body: Biological signals that, when properly evaluated, can direct a doctor or researcher to a better diagnosis or understanding of a medical condition. The end goal of knowing more how to detect signs of illness is discovering and providing better treatments and outcomes for patients.

The Stanford Cardiovascular Institute (CVI)’s clinical Biomarker and Phenotype Core Laboratory (BPCL) focuses on developing cardiovascular and immune-response biomarkers of numerous cardiovascular conditions. These biomarkers can then be used to advance research in treating cardiovascular disease.

Francois Haddad, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine, has been the Director of the BPCL since 2013, and has helped usher in its growth and expansion of services over the last decade.

“Our mission is to provide quantitative assessment of clinical cardiovascular phenotypes useful for translational research and clinical trials and to foster the development of novel biomarker platform and new imaging modalities,” said Haddad.

Biomarker studies are innately multidisciplinary, and involve a great deal of collaboration across differing medical and research areas. Though focused on cardiovascular disease traits. Dr. Haddad and his BPCL team collaborates with a diverse group of physicians, researchers, and staff, on a wide variety of ongoing projects. The accompanying panel summarizes some of these past and present team-science initiatives.

One notable ongoing project that BPCL works on is the Stanford Athletics Screening Program. Over 500 Stanford athletes have been screened for potential, often hidden, health risks, such as Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS). The results of this program are helping keep our student athletes more informed, and healthier.

As a CVI core laboratory, the BPCL welcomes new projects, with a wide variety of research services available for both internal and external researchers. For more information on the specifics, from analysis of electrocardiography data to reviewing exercise text, visit the BPCL website by clicking here.

If interested in any of BPCL’s services, please contact Francois Haddad, MD, at fhaddad@stanford.edu.