Firefighter Challenge®: Highly detailed map of human heart could guide personalised heart treatments

Monday, September 28, 2020

Highly detailed map of human heart could guide personalised heart treatments – Wellcome Sanger Institute

Heart Cell Atlas will illuminate our understanding of heart health and disease

Scientists have created a cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart, to understand how this vital organ functions, and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease.

Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Germany, Harvard Medical School, Imperial College London and their global collaborators analyzed almost half a million individual cells to build a first extensive draft cell atlas of the human heart. The atlas shows the huge diversity of cells and reveals heart muscle cell types, cardiac protective immune cells, and the intricate network of blood vessels. It also predicts how the cells communicate to keep the heart working.

Published today in Nature (24 September), this study is part of the Human Cell Atlas initiative to map every cell type in the human body. The new molecular and cellular knowledge of the heart will enable a better understanding of heart disease and guide more personalized medicine. It could also potentially lead to regenerative medicine in the future.

The heart is an essential organ that pumps blood around the body, enabling oxygen and nutrients to be delivered and carbon dioxide and waste products to be carried away from other vital organs and tissues. Each day, the heart beats around 100,000 times with a one-way flow through four different chambers, varying speed with rest, exercise and stress. This is extremely complex and needs the cells in each part of the heart to coordinate with each other for every heartbeat.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing an estimated 17.9 million people each year, with heart attacks and strokes causing the majority of these. To understand what happens during heart disease and create better therapeutic strategies, it is vital to know the intricate molecular processes in the cells of the healthy heart.

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Dr. Paul O. Davis, Ph.D., FACSM

Dr. Paul earned his doctoral degree from the University of Maryland, School of Public Health, Department of Kinesiology where he placed major emphasis on the study of occupational fitness requirements and the quantification of work physiology. His dissertation on the energy costs and oxygen/lactate kinetics of structural firefighting was the first published study of its kind.

He has consulted for a number of law enforcement

organizations, including the NYPD, DEA, US Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police, US Marshals Service, IACP and the FBI. Projects of note have included the development of job-related physical performance and medical standards for a number of law enforcement agencies. Dr. Davis has also conducted in-depth studies of the requirements for SWAT, K-9, and industrial security positions. Most recently under contract to FOH (Federal Occupational Health) he designed the entry and graduation criteria for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), IEAs (Immigration Enforcement Agents); the largest-ever hiring initiative (n=5,000). In another FOH contract he was part of an elite team tasked with a year-long embed study in the Southwest for the US Border Patrol to mitigate workers comp injuries.

As a consultant to the US Navy, he validated the Marine Corps’ PT test through a comprehensive JTA (job task

analysis) of essential functions in amphibious, jungle, desert and high altitude, cold weather operations.

An internationally recognized authority on the subject of

fitness standards and equal employment opportunity issues, Dr. Davis has participated in over 70 legal proceedings as an expert witness. In the seminal Lanning v SEPTA case, he won the accolades of the presiding federal judge as “the

preeminent expert on physical performance standards.” He has appeared on behalf of such organizations as the U.S. Department of Justice, OSHA, Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission, and the FBI, as well as many other state and local governments. He has also testified before the House Select Committee on Aging regarding performance-based health and fitness assessment and submitted invited testimony on Women in Ground Combat for the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Dr. Davis is a member and fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and holds that organization’s highest level of certification. He has authored over 200 technical reports, manuals, articles and most recently co-authored with Dr. Bryan Sharkey the book: Hard Work, dealing with his research on the relationship between human physical performance factors and health.

His professional accomplishments were recognized with a Governor’s Citation for the State of Maryland. He is a inductee of the Fire Heritage Hall of Leaders, Legends and Legacies.Consistent with his lifelong commitment to promoting first responder health, fitness, and readiness, Dr. Davis is well known for creating unique public safety competitions including: the Firefighter Combat Challenge® (now in its 32nd season), the L.E.O.P.A.R.D. (Law Enforcement Officer Performance and

Reaction Drill), the World SWAT Challenge, the Army's Best Ranger Competition and the newly recreated Military Battle Challenge®. Throughout the years, these programs have

received very wide televised coverage on the ESPN, Discovery, A&E, CBS, NBC and ABC television networks and, as the creator and expert commentator, Dr. Davis provides color

commentary.