The University of Nebraska Medical Center has received a $383,600 cardiovascular
research training grant that will provide research opportunities for students
and graduate fellows to study coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood
pressure and other heart conditions. The five-year grant was awarded by
the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is part of the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.
The program’s goals are to provide students interested in a career in
cardiovascular research a quality education in cardiovascular function
and disease in a basic science laboratory setting. It also would expose
students and fellows to faculty from different specialty areas. Funding
received in the first year will be $31,788; the second year, $65,832; and
the third, fourth and fifth year, $95,364.
"In spite of significant advances in prevention and treatment,
death and disability from cardiovascular disease remains the number one
health concern," said Irving Zucker, Ph.D., principal investigator
of the grant and chairman and professor of the UNMC physiology and biophysics
department. "This grant will give students the opportunity to work
with talented faculty to study cellular, molecular and organ-based abnormalities
of the heart. If we understand these mechanisms through basic science,
we can develop more and better ways to treat diseases of the heart."
Dr. Zucker said this is one of two training grants at UNMC. Unlike typical
research grants that pay for salaries, supplies, equipment, travel, budget
and other incidentals, training grants are used only for paying a trainees’
salary.
"What getting this grant means to UNMC is that the National Institutes
of Health recognizes UNMC has a significant number of mentors available
that are productive and can provide resources for training these young
scientists," said Dr. Zucker. "Although the trainees will move
on after their training, we are making a long-term investment in individuals
who will become national resources."
Pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows interested in cardiovascular
research will be selected from a pool of national applicants. Under the
grant, they will spend about two years in the UNMC Cardiovascular Research
Center working with UNMC faculty researchers and physicians studying cardiovascular
function and disease.
"While cardiovascular research exists in various UNMC departments,
this training grant, along with the newly-established Cardiovascular Research
Center, are the first attempts to bring together faculty from various disciplines
to offer a comprehensive training program dealing with the latest developments
in cardiovascular science," said Dr. Zucker.
The UNMC departments that will support the training program include
physiology and biophysics, surgery, pharmacology, pathology and microbiology,
pediatrics, anesthesiology, cell biology and anatomy and the College of
Medicine.
According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular diseases
claimed nearly 960,600 lives in 1995, accounting for 41.5 percent of all
deaths. About one-sixth of all people who die from cardiovascular disease
are under age 65.
Coronary heart disease, caused by atherosclerotic narrowing of the coronary
arteries, is likely to produce angina, heart attack or both. It is the
single leading cause of death in America today. This year an estimated
1.1 million Americans will have a new or recurrent coronary attack, and
about one-third of them will die.
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