In humans, we identified a correlation between the abundance of VLC-dihydroceramides in myocardial biopsies and arrhythmias and heart failure and showed that cardiac expression of CERS2, coding for an enzyme that promotes synthesis of VLC-dihydroceramides, was associated with signaling pathways linked to cardiac arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy. The gene discussed is CERS2; the disease is heart failure.