Antoine H. Chaanine

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Section of Cardiology at Tulane University Heart and Vascular Institute. I received my medical school diploma from Aristotle University of Thessalonica, Greece. I am an advanced heart failure specialist with research focused on metabolic remodeling in heart failure.

During my Postdoctoral training at Dr. Hajjar's lab I have focused on understanding the role of mitophagy and perturbations in mitochondrial morphology, dynamics and function in heart failure. I showed that perturbations in mitochondrial integrity play a central role in cardiac remodeling in a rat model of pressure overload induced heart failure. Specifically, I showed a role of the FOXO3a-BNIP3 axis in altering endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondrial calcium homeostasis and its consequences on mitochondrial dynamics and function as well as calcium cycling in heart failure. Targeting (inhibition) the FOXO3a-BNIP3 pathway, via gene therapy, improved mitochondrial function and myocardial contractility and reversed myocardial remodeling in a rat pressure overload induced systolic heart failure. For this work, I was awarded the John C. Sable memorial heart fund and the Heart Failure Society of America Award.

I then moved to Mayo Clinic as a Research Associate at Dr. Redfield's lab where I showed a correlation between increased BNIP3 expression and mitochondrial dysfunction and myocardial remodeling in human systolic heart failure. For this work I was awarded the Cardiovascular Prospective Research grant.

In 2019, I was recruited as faculty at Tulane University. My plan is to compete for NIH funding and develop strategies inhibiting the FOXO3a-BNIP3 pathway as a potential therapeutic strategy for patients with early and advanced cardiac remodeling and systolic heart failure.