Agnes Wahrenberg awarded ESC Young Investigators Award 2024
Congratulations Agnes Wahrenberg, PhD student of the Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, on receiving the prestigious “Young Investigators Award in Atherothrombosis, Coronary, Aortic and Peripheral Artery Disease,” at the European Society of Cardiology’s annual congress in London.
Agnes Wahrenberg presented the abstract “Plasma protein profile associated with a family history of early-onset coronary heart disease.” This work is part of Agnes Wahrenberg´s dissertation project and reports findings of potential biomarkers for hereditary coronary artery disease.
The study is based on data from the Swedish population study SCAPIS, where participants from various regions in Sweden contributed blood samples and underwent heart CT scans.
Data on hereditary coronary artery disease were obtained through Swedish registers. Several biomarkers linked to both hereditary coronary artery disease and atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries have been identified in the study participants.
Information was also gathered from already published studies, such as UK Biobank, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D and FinnGen, to show causation between certain biomarkers and myocardial infarction.
One of the most significant findings is that the protein follistatin has been identified to play a possible causal role in myocardial infarction, which has not been shown before.
These findings contribute to the understanding of new mechanisms of coronary artery disease and may potentially lead to improved methods for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases.