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Welcome to the website of the Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy (FDC) Project at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. This site is designed to provide information for scientists, health care providers, and patients and families with dilated cardiomyopathy.

The FDC Research Project was founded at Oregon Health & Science University by Ray Hershberger, MD in 1993 and moved to the University of Miami in 2007.  The scientific goals of the project are (1) to identify and characterize families with FDC, and (2) to determine the molecular basis of FDC; that is, to identify the gene or genes that cause or predispose an individual to dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure.  An NIH research grant was received in mid-1998 to fund these activities, and was renewed in 2002 and 2008.  Our FDC research team is composed of clinicians and scientists in cardiology and genetics. It is our hope that new insights from these studies will lead to novel strategies for the detection, screening, prevention and treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure.

The goal of this website is to provide you with timely, relevant information about FDC, and inform you of our research goals and seek your assistance. 

• For scientists and health care professionals including cardiologists, geneticists, nurses and others, we inform you about the latest FDC research findings, new DNA diagnostic testing for your patients, and our recommendations to manage, treat and counsel your IDC/FDC patients. We also request that you refer to us families with dilated cardiomyopathy who are willing to participate in our study.

• For patients and families, we hope to educate you about genetic causes of dilated cardiomyopathy, inform you of our efforts to understand why and how it develops, counsel you about some of the genetic and family issues of this disease, and seek your support for our ongoing efforts.
  

We hope you find this site useful.  Please use the "Contact Us" page to send us your comments and questions. 

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