Dr. Ky’s research interests center on translational cardiovascular epidemiology and focus particularly on novel signaling pathways and mechanisms in human heart failure, cardiac remodeling, and cancer therapy cardiotoxicity.

Her current research is concentrated in three areas. First, her work on neuregulin signaling asks, how does circulating neuregulin relate to human heart failure and cardiac remodeling? She is the principal investigator of a longitudinal study to determine the association between circulating neuregulin levels and cardiac remodeling and clinical outcomes in the Penn Heart Failure Study and the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort. 

Second, her work on studies in mechanistic biomarkers in cancer therapy cardiotoxicity seeks to define novel circulating biomarkers and genetic variations predictive of cancer therapy cardiotoxicity. The team’s objective is to gain mechanistic and translational insight into the pathophysiology of this disease. Ongoing studies look at specific pathways and biomarkers of interest and at proteomics discovery across various cardiotoxic regimens.

Finally, Dr. Ky’s work on myocardial mechanics in cancer therapy cardiotoxicity and heart failure seeks to gain insight into alterations in myocardial mechanics and sensitive measures of cardiac function, as defined by echocardiography, in patients exposed to cardiotoxic chemotherapy regimens and in patients with chronic heart failure.