Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) delivers cutting-edge cell-to-bedside research and education of cardiovascular disease, which is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. At the CVRTI, we are both developing new insights into the biology of heart muscle cells, and developing novel therapeutics for patients with heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias such as sudden cardiac death.

Located at the University of Utah, the CVRTI nucleates a campus wide, multidisciplinary team of fourteen individual investigator laboratories who are both scientists and physician scientists. The research of the laboratories spans from basic muscle biology and channel electrophysiology to metabolism and genetics. Founded in 1969, the CVRTI is one of the oldest cardiovascular institutes in the country, and its research has already impacted clinical care from development of the first artificial heart, to the genetic basis of long QT arrhythmias, to using electricity to map heart dimensions for arrhythmia ablation, to myocardial recovery.

Heart disease is the world’s leading killer, claiming 18.6 million lives annually. Here’s the kicker—up to 60% of the risk can be inherited.

Imagine this: two people eat the same diet, follow the same exercise routine, and maintain the same healthy lifestyle. However, one develops heart disease while the other doesn’t. It’s a frustrating truth that may lie in something neither of them can see—their genetics. The truth is that genetics and heart disease are linked closer than many people would like to believe.