INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana researchers are about to get a hefty boost to fight congenital heart disease.

The National Institutes of Health provided the Indiana University School of Medicine $11.5 million to look at the cause and treatment of heart failure in children.

Doctors say congenital heart disease is the nation’s most common birth defect among children and many of those structural abnormalities can lead to heart failure.

The funding is the only institutional grant given to those looking at the cause and treatment of heart failure in children.

According to an IU statement, Loren J. Field, professor of medicine and pediatrics, is the principal investigator of the integrated project involving six IU School of Medicine faculty.

"The focus is to perform basic research to understand the origins and potential treatment of heart failure in young patients," Field said.

"This funding will allow us to evaluate everything from what happens as the fetal heart develops to how damaged heart tissue can regenerate in infants who experience heart failure," Field added.

Researchers hope findings these answers will mean fewer heart transplants.

Doctors also believe that this research may impact adults with congenital heart defects.