[CDD Roster]

The Cardiovascular Differentiation and Development [CDD] Study Section reviews applications concerning normal and abnormal development and differentiation of the heart, vascular and lymphatic systems. This focus includes stem and progenitor cells, tissue interactions, morphogenetic processes, and regulation of differentiation in humans and model organisms.

Specific areas covered by CDD:

• Cardiac development, including commitment and differentiation of cell phenotypes, cardiac lineages, cardiac transcription factors and their coactivators or repressors, developmental regulation of RNA splicing and developmental changes in protein isoform expression.
• Cardiac morphogenesis, including looping morphogenesis, chamber specification, positional information as it relates to the developing heart, valve morphogenesis and changes in cell number, shape or survival in the context of heart formation.
• Development and differentiation of the conduction system in the heart.
• Neural crest contributions to the heart and great vessels in developing organisms.
• Vascular development, including the origin, commitment and differentiation of endothelial and smooth muscle cell populations.  Cell-cell and tissue interactions that regulate vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, cell polarity and organization. Inductive stimuli that regulate differentiation and gene expression.  Patterning components that regulate the position, size and organization of the vascular system.  Aspects of smooth muscle that include different embryonic origins and divergent physiological responses based on origins.
• Development of the coronary circulation and the epicardium.
• Vascular remodeling in the postnatal organism where angiogenic stimuli produce new outgrowth and vascularization in a recapitulation of embryonic and fetal processes.
• Studies of lymphangiogenesis including the origins, commitment, differentiation and organization of the lymphatic vascular system.  This does not include components of the immune system found in the lymphatic drainage system.
• Embryonic cell processes including migration, chemotaxis, cell-cell adhesion, extracellular matrix adhesion, secretion or modification, organization of the cytoskeleton or sarcomere and apoptosis will be covered as they are related to development and differentiation of the cardiovascular system.
• Receptors, signaling, gene regulation and protein expression as related to the differentiation and development of the embryonic and fetal cardiovascular systems.
• Stem cell biology related to the cardiovascular system including differentiation of embryonic and adult stem cells into cardiomyocytes, endothelium, smooth muscle and other components of the cardiovascular system.  Characterization of endogenous stem cells that contribute to the myocardium and vasculature in vivo.  Genetic and pharmacologic enhancements to stem cells to promote their accessibility, function or usefulness.
• Studies of cardiovascular development in a variety of model organisms, including Drosophila, Xenopus, zebrafish, chick and mouse.
• Studies related to the understanding of human congenital cardiac and vascular malformations, including valvular and septal defects, chamber malformations, maternal-fetal vascular connections, teratologic mechanisms, and fetal cardiac pathology.
• Genomic and proteomic approaches to cardiovascular development including expression profiling, mapping of protein interaction networks, saturation mutagenesis and high throughput phenotyping, and the functional evaluation of changes in normal and abnormal development.
• Human genetics of cardiac and vascular malformations, including positional cloning, structure-function and genotype-phenotype correlations, and the modeling of human developmental cardiovascular disorders in other organisms.

CDD has the following shared interests within the CVS IRG:

• With Cardiac Contractility, Hypertrophy and Failure [CCHF]:Applications addressing calcium regulation and receptor-mediated effects restricted to myocyte growth signaling, contractility, apoptosis, and remodeling are appropriate for review by CCHF. The renin/angiotensin system as it relates to cellular growth is also appropriate for assignment to CCHF.  Embryonic growth and differentiation of myocytes is more appropriately assigned to CDD. 

• With Electrical Signaling, Ion Transport and Arrhythmias [ESTA]: Applications that deal with congenital and acquired arrhythmia syndromes and other ion movement abnormalities may be assigned to ESTA, while studies focusing on development of electrically active cells will be assigned to CDD.

• With Vascular Cell and Molecular Biology [VCMB]:  Applications that focus on elements of blood vessel growth and differentiation in postnatal vascular beds may be assigned to VCMB.  Embryonic growth and differentiation of vessels is more appropriately assigned to CDD. 

CDD has the following shared interests outside the CVS IRG:

• With the Genes, Genomes & Genetics [GGG] IRG:  Shared interests occur in genetic analysis of cardiac and vascular malformations. When the focus is a general genetic understanding, assignment could be to the GGG IRG. When the focus is an understanding of the biology and physiology of the cardiovascular system, assignment could be to CDD.

• With the Cell Biology [CB] IRG:  Shared interests occur in cellular and molecular examination of developing cardiovascular tissues. When the focus is a general cellular or molecular understanding, assignment could be to the CB IRG. When the focus is an understanding of the biology and physiology of the cardiovascular system, assignment could be to CDD.
• With the Biology of Development and Aging [BDA] IRG:  Shared interest exists in the areas of organogenesis, including birth defects.  In general, applications that focus on early developmental processes up to and including formation of the primordial heart, blood and vasculature, and malformations which emerge at these earlier stages, would typically be assigned to the BDA IRG.  On the other hand, applications with a focus on developmental events after formation of these primordial tissues, including birth defects, would typically be assigned to CDD.  The BDA IRG may also be assigned applications that study post-primordial developmental events when the purpose of the study is to uncover or further elucidate common fundamental developmental processes.  An example would be where the focus is on processes common to various mesodermal derivatives.  Assignment would be made based on the central focus of the application.

• With the Oncological Sciences [ONC] IRG:  Shared interest exists in the area of angiogenesis.  Where studies focus on developmentally related processes or reactivation of embryonic processes they could be assigned to CDD.   When the focus is on tumor angiogenesis assignment to the ONC IRG would be appropriate.

• With the Hematology [HEME] IRG:  Shared interest may exist concerning common stem cell precursors of the endothelial and hematopoetic cell types.  While studies of multipotent or bipotent stem cells could be assigned to CDD, hematopoetic differentiation may be more appropriately assigned to the HEME IRG. Assignment of applications on the transdifferentiation of cells between the blood and endothelial cell types would be resolved in the direction of the final phenotype.