Three students aid in heart research
UA professor, Bentonville High collaborators seek cardiovascular risks
BENTONVILLE — Three Bentonville High School students are doing research to find genes they hope can lead to early detection of heart failure before it strikes.
Seniors Sarthak Chaturvedi, Saivarunteja Elagandula and Aditya Sohaney are working on the project under the guidance of the University of Arkansas’ William Richardson. Richardson is the Bates-endowed associate professor in chemical engineering, and his lab’s expertise is in biochemical systems engineering, cardiac tissue remodeling and personalized medicine, according to the university’s website.
Richardson said he met Chaturvedi and Elagandula at a tech conference in Bentonville last year and that Sohaney reached out independently, saying he was interested in research. Richardson brought the three together for this project.
“The idea for the research was something that we were already doing in my lab,” Richardson said. “I’m interested in heart failure and computer modeling. That was all in place, and they wanted to contribute something. So I had a project ready to go. Essentially, we are trying to find computer models. You might call it a molecular signature.”
In describing the project, he used the example of having cholesterol checked to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Instead of measuring just cholesterol, we might measure a hundred different things,” Richardson said. “And then you crank those through a computer model, and it comes up with a rate and score, kind of an overall scoring strategy. That’s what they’re working on, trying to come up with a computer model to simplify all those measurements.”
The goal is to determine an overall risk score for heart failure, Richardson said.
“I would say their findings have the potential to be significant for diagnosing and treating heart failure,” Richardson said. “There are several years of follow-up work before we know the impact for certain, but the guys have definitely started an exciting path.”
The group’s work centers on early diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy, Sohaney said.
Dilated cardiomyopathy occurs when the left ventricular wall on the bottom left of the heart swells, and the wall gets thinner, Chaturvedi said. That makes it harder for the left ventricle — the heart’s main pumping chamber — to pump blood throughout the body, which can cause heart failure.
They’ve identified about 10 biomarkers — genes — that point to dilated cardiomyopathy, Chaturvedi said.
“The challenging part is the application of the biomarkers,” he said. “Because once we find the biomarkers, we have to learn the biological side of it. That’s a lot of advanced, college-level subjects. So we have to read through many papers and understand what they’re talking about.”
The students are working on a paper about their research and hope to get it published.
“They’ve uncovered some things and built a model,” Richardson said. “That’s just kind of one step in a series of many steps. We’ll let them work on it as long as they can, then we’ll hand it off to some graduate students in my lab.”
Elagandula said the strengths and abilities of the team overlap, with Sohaney being key on the technical side while Elagandula and Chaturvedi focus on selecting the data they want to compare in the computer model.
“They came in knowing computer modeling, programming and coding skills already,” Richardson said. “They’ve been fantastic. They’re kind of entrepreneurial. They’ll go out on their own and find tools they need.”
They’ve been working on the project for about seven months, Sohaney said.
“It took three or four months to get adjusted, get into the research,” Elagandula added. “We slowly started to get past certain obstacles. We were able to to end up finding some new biomarkers, something that we think is really phenomenal for the research that we’ve done.”
When the students’ paper is finished, Richardson said, it’ll be submitted to conferences.
“We all hope this could aid the future of personalized medicine,” Chaturvedi said.
Research is ongoing, Richardson said.
The students are enrolled in the Bentonville School District’s Ignite Professional Studies program, which gives high school juniors and seniors a chance to explore specific career fields in which there is high demand for workers.
“They are all ambitious students who enjoy challenges, research and combining technology with their research and findings,” said Wendy Broughton, health sciences instructor at Ignite.
“I always encourage my students to dive into some type of research. They are involved in research projects within the the class, but they developed this idea of more intensive research on their own. These young men are confident, assertive and bold with their asks. In turn, they have had amazing opportunities.”