In search of molecular mechanisms underlying sex differences in cardiac arrythmia

In general, women are at increased risk of  suffering from cardiac arrhythmias compared to men. This has been  suggested to be due to distinct hormone profiles of steroid sex hormones  like  estrogen, progesterone and testosterone between women and men, which  contributes to differences in cardiovascular electrophysiology between  the sexes. However, there are limited mechanistic insights into how sex  hormones modulate the activity of many of the  proteins critical for tuning cardiac function. In this project, we aim  to understand how the female steroid sex hormone modulates one of the  key cardiac ion channels.