# An individualized network medicine infrastructure for precision cardio-oncology

> **NIH NIH R00** · CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU · 2020 · $248,999

## Abstract

The growing awareness of cardiac dysfunction by cancer treatment has led to the emerging field of cardio-
oncology. However, there are no guidelines in terms of how to prevent and treat the new cardiotoxicity in
cancer survivors due to the limited experimental assays. Network medicine – a discipline that seeks to redefine
disease and therapeutics from an integrated perspective using systems biology and network science – offers a
non-invasive way to identify actionable biomarkers for cardio-oncology. This five-year career development
program will develop state-of-the-art systems pharmacology and network medicine approaches in cardio-
oncology that focuses on screening, monitoring, and treating cancer survivors with cardiac dysfunction
resulting from cancer treatment for facilitating the career goals to the principal investigator (PI), Dr. Feixiong
Cheng. With this application, the PI will adhere to a rigorous mentored training curriculum in Northeastern
University, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard’s Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). The PI’s
mentor, Dr. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, one of the world’s leading experts in the field of network science, has
strong collaborative relations with his co-mentors, Drs. Joseph Loscalzo and Sebastian Schneeweiss, in BWH.
Dr. Loscalzo, an influential cardiologist, will provide the PI with cardiovascular biology training, career guidance,
and scientific advice on the execution of the proposed research plan. Dr. Schneeweiss, a premier
pharmacoepidemiologist, will provide the PI with training on applying computationally intensive algorithms for
analyzing patient longitudinal big data. This program proposes two specific aims: 1) Development of a state-of-
the-art systems pharmacology approach, namely genome-wide positioning systems drug network (GPSDnet)
algorithm, to illuminate the landscape of cardiotoxicity to various cancer agents (K99) - The central, unifying
hypothesis of GPSDnet is that an integrated, mechanism-based, network approach which incorporates next-
generation sequencing data, drug-target networks, drug-induced transcriptome, the human interactome, along
with adverse event reports from the FDA’s Adverse Event Reporting System and patient longitudinal data, will
prove a novel and effective way for evaluation of cardiotoxicity for current cancer therapies (e.g., multitargeted
kinase inhibitors) and new therapies (e.g., immune checkpoint inhibitors); 2) Cardio-oncology perturbation,
diagnosis, prevention, and patient care (R00) - The Aim 2 will emphasize the use of network medicine
techniques to identify actionable biomarkers (e.g., comorbidity network modules shared by cancer cells and
cardiovascular cells/systems) for advancing the characterization of cardio-oncology heterogeneity, thereby
achieving the goal of coordinated, patient-centered strategies for treatment and long-term cardiovascular care
(e.g., heart failure and coronary artery disease) for cancer survivors. In summary, approval of ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9955315
- **Project number:** 5R00HL138272-04
- **Recipient organization:** CLEVELAND CLINIC LERNER COM-CWRU
- **Principal Investigator:** Feixiong Cheng
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $248,999
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9955315

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9955315, An individualized network medicine infrastructure for precision cardio-oncology (5R00HL138272-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9955315. Licensed CC0.

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