Dr. Dan Roden is the principal investigator for The Pharmacogenomics of Arrhythmia Therapy (PAT) Center (U01 HL65962.) He is responsible for overall coordination of the project.

Abnormalities of cardiac rhythm are a common and serious public health problem. However, the therapies used to treat arrhythmias are often ineffective, and can sometimes even exacerbate arrhythmias. Research in Dr. Roden's laboratory is directed at elucidating mechanisms underlying abnormalities of cardiac rhythm and mechanisms underlying variable responses to antiarrhythmic drug treatments. Since antiarrhythmic drugs affect the function of cardiac ion channels, one working hypothesis in Dr. Roden's laboratory is that variable responses to drug therapy may reflect variable function or expression of genes encoding ion channels or proteins involved in drug disposition.

Some of the questions explored relate to mechanisms underlying variable ion channel expression and function and to frequency and functional characterization of DNA variants in ion channel (and other) genes. In vitro cellular electrophysiology, animal models in mouse and zebrafish are used for studying these mechanisms. These models lend themselves easily to gene manipulation. In concert with studies in human beings to identify mechanisms underlying abnormal rhythms or variable responses to drug therapy ( "pharmacogenomics"), a comprehensive approach is applied to explore possible solutions.

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