“A new era in Cardiogenetics”. This was the title of my opening editorial when we started the fantastic journey of
Cardiogenetics [
1].
Back in 2011, when new techniques like next generation sequencing were just emerging in the genomic panorama [
2]. Exome sequencing, noncoding DNA, bioinfomatics, big data, micro-RNA, long-noncoding DNA, epigenetics, entered our daily vocabulary, highlighting the importance of forming a “cardiogenetics team” working side by side, bringing the lab to the patients’ bed, and vice-versa [
2,
3,
4,
5]. Inherited and rare cardiovascular disease became a peculiar and important entity in the panorama of cardiovascular disease. Thanks to the new therapeutics opportunities, an increasing number of cardiologists are converging their interest in the field [
6,
7].
Here in 2020, Covid-19, a
tsunami on the health systems worldwide, but also on the capacity of scientists to develop and give priority to new projects, unrelated to SARS-CoV2. Inherited and rare disease clinical services have changed their perspectives, favoring teleconsulting/telemedicine approaches [
8].
Can we imagine a new era “post Covid-19"? We must learn from mistakes and good things (misleading scientific and media information on one side, use of technologies on the other side), and build new global and regional priorities on this ground. We are all anxious to open our drawer to find that our mask and hand sanitizer are not there anymore, that our fight with the virus has been won, and our priorities as clinicians and scientists are again “Covid-19 free”.
In this difficult and confusing time MDPI, an organization with more than two decades of experience in online, Open Access science publishing, and dedicated editorial office staff who have a science background, took over
Cardiogenetics from PAGEPress, betting on the renewed interest of the genetics and the cardiology communities [
9].
I am happy share this venture with Prof. Lia Crotti and Prof. Perry Elliott, who represent recognized world-wide leaders in the field of cardiogenetics. Cardiogenetics publishes reviews, original and research articles, short and case reports.
A strong Editorial Board of active clinicians and scientists will support this new experience. Rapid and high-level peer review, fast online publication, new special issue proposals, waived fees for 2020, and other promoting initiative will help to increase Cardiogenetics visibility and readers’ appetites.
References
- Limongelli, G. A new era in Cardiogenetics. Cardiogenetics 2011, 1, e1. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Monserrat, L.; Mazzanti, A.; Ortiz-Genga, M.; Barriales-Villa, R.; Garcia-Giustiniani, D.; Gimeno-Blanes, J.R. The interpretation of genetic tests in inherited cardiovascular diseases. Cardiogenetics 2011, 1, e8. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Charron, P.; Elliott, P. Time for education in Cardiogenetics. Cardiogenetics 2011, 1, e2. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Crotti, L.; Limongelli, G.; Antzelevitch, C. Ion channels and beating heart: The players and the music. Cardiogenetics 2011, 1, e1. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [Green Version]
- Girolami, F.; Frisso, G.; Benelli, M.; Crotti, L.; Iascone, M.; Mango, R.; Mazzaccara, C.; Pilichou, K.; Arbustini, E.; Tomberli, B.; et al. Contemporary genetic testing in inherited cardiac disease: Tools, ethical issues, and clinical applications. J. Cardiovasc. Med. (Hagerstown) 2018, 19, 1–11. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Green Version]
- Spiniello, G.; Verrillo, F.; Ricciolino, R.; Prozzo, D.; Tuccillo, A.; Caiazza, M.; Rubino, M. Gene therapy in anderson-fabry disease. state of the art and future perspectives. Cardiogenetics 2020, 10. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Limongelli, G.; Bossone, E.; Elliott, P.M.; Day, S.M. On the Road from Gene to Therapy in Inherited Cardiomyopathies. Heart Fail Clin. 2018, 14, xi–xv. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Limongelli, G.; Crotti, L. COVID-19 pandemia and inherited cardiomyopathies and channelopathies: A short term and long term perspective. Orphanet J. Rare Dis. 2020, 15, 157. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Vicario, U.; Vazquez, F.; Lin, S.K. Publisher’s Note: Continued Publication of Cardiogenetics by MDPI. Cardiogenetics 2020, 10, 24. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Short Biography of Author
Giuseppe Limongelli, MD, PhD, FESC. Dr. Limongelli graduated (1997) and completed his Cardiology Training (2001) from the Second University of Naples (SUN). In 2001, he attended the “Master in Nephrology” (SUN). In 2001, he won a four years PhD course in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Sciences and Associated Biotechnology (SUN).
From 2002 to 2003, he was attached to St George’s Hospital Medical School (London, UK) as Research Fellow of The Genotyping Lab & Heart Failure Clinic. From 2003 to 2004, he was attached to The University College of London (London, UK) as Research Fellow of The Cobbold Lab (Middlesex Hospital) & Heart Failure Clinic (The Heart Hospital). During his stay in St George’s Hospital, he attended a 6 months “Bioinformatics Half Module” at the Department of Basic Sciences. In 2003, he started an “European Doctorate in Biotechnology” course (HeduBT, UK), with a project on “Clinical and Molecular Aspects of Cardiomyopathies”. He was appointed with the title of “European Doctor in Biotechnology” in 2007.
He is currently an Associate professor of Cardiology (since november 2017) at the Department of Translational Science, Università della Campania “Luigi VanvitellI”-Monaldi Hospital (AORN Colli), and Honorary Senior Lecturer (since May 2017) at the the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, University College of London, London, UK. His main research interests are clinical and genetic mechanisms of cardiomyopathies and heart failure, congenital, inherited, and rare disease, and athlete’s heart.
Lia Crotti, MD, PhD, FESC. Lia Crotti is associate professor of Cardiology at the University Milano Bicocca in Milan and she is the head of the Cardiomyopathy Unit in the IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano in Milan, Italy. Furthermore, in the same Institute she also has a leading role in the Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias of Genetic Origin and Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics.
Lia Crotti is an internationally renowned expert in channelopathies and cardiomyopathies and her research interests are mainly focused on the genetic basis of sudden cardiac death, in genetically transmitted arrhythmogenic diseases. She identified a number of genetic modifiers of the clinical severity of the Long QT Syndrome. She discovered through whole exome sequencing that calmodulin genes were novel genetic substrate for severe form of Long QT Syndrome and through the creation of an international Calmodulinopathy Registry she better characterized this new clinical entity. She also identified CDH2 as a new gene responsible for Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy and recently characterized some specific features. Furthermore, her research is focused on the improvement of the clinical management and treatment of patients affected by arrhythmogenic diseases and through the use of cardiomyocyte-derived IPs cells new drugs identified, are now under clinical evaluation. She regularly reviews manuscripts for all leading journals in cardiology and she is author or co-author of 146 peer reviewed papers and 17 book chapters. Her total Impact factor is 1151, with a total H-index of 41. She is vice-chair of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Genetics (ECGen) focus group within EHRA. Besides her home Country (Italy) she has been spending research periods in the USA, South Africa, and Germany.
Perry Elliott, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FESC, FACC. Perry Elliott (H-index 105) is Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at University College London (UCL) and a Senior Investigator of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). He is director of the UCL Centre for Heart Muscle Disease, Head of Clinical Research at the Institute of Cardiovascular Science UCL and a consultant cardiologist in the Centre for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease at the Bart’s Heart Centre, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital London, UK. He is Chairman of the ESC Heart Academy and the ESC Council on Cardiovascular Genomics, past Chairman of the ESC Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases (2010–2012) and the Executive Committee for the European Outcomes Research Programme registry on cardiomyopathies, chair of the ESC Guideline Task Force on Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, member of the Congress Programme Committee 2018–2020 and a member of the ESC Managerial Council. He is President of Cardiomyopathy UK, Europe’s foremost charity for patients with heart muscle disease. He is past Deputy Editor of The Heart Journal and the International Journal of Cardiology. He is currently an executive Editor for the European Heart Journal. Over the past 25 years, Prof. Elliott has established an international reputation in the field of heart muscle disease, authoring more than 500 peer-reviewed papers on the subject. He develops diagnostic standards, risk stratification tools and clinical service models based on some of Europe’s largest inherited heart disease cohorts, fostering industry collaborations in sequence interpretation, therapeutic trials and multicentre research partnerships.
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