UNT undergraduate researchers Alysha Joseph and Diana Wang, who graduated this spring from UNT's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, conducted research with Douglas Root, associate professor of biological sciences, to discover a new drug to treat hereditary cardiomyopathy disease, the leading cause of sudden death in young athletes.

They found that positively charged polyamine compounds stabilized the weakened region of heart muscle protein that causes the disease, the first step in developing new drugs. In April, they presented their work at a Council on Undergraduate Research event in Washington, D.C.