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$7 million award makes U of L home to environmental cardiology
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has awarded U of L the university’s first ever NIH Program Project Grant to support work in a new research discipline: environmental cardiology. The grant, a $7 million five-year award, will fund four projects as well as related core services and laboratories.
According to Aruni Bhatnagar, a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at U of L and project leader, various epidemiologic studies over the last decade have shown a link between air pollution and daily mortality rates.
“We know that on days when there is a significant increase in air pollution, there is about a 6 percent increase in mortality over the next 24 hours — most of those being cardiopulmonary deaths,” he explained. “Of the 300,000 sudden cardiac deaths each year, it is now estimated that 60,000 to 80,000 of those may be linked to air pollution. However, there have been few controlled physiologic studies to determine the nature of a causal relationship between specific components of air pollution and the progression of heart disease.”
All four projects funded by the grant will involve determining the various effects of different aldehydes on cardiac cellular or systematic function. Aldehydes are a group of chemicals in air pollution that can be found in high quantities in vehicle exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke. In most cities, aldehydes make up more than 50 percent of organic air pollution. High levels of these chemicals have also been detected in fried foods, fats and drinking water.
A key element to the success of the projects and to winning the PPG award is the presence of leading-edge core laboratories. U of L’s bioanalytical core laboratory, directed by William Pierce, will use mass spectrometry technologies to perform molecular structural analysis for all four projects. An additional core, which will provide controlled inhalation exposures, is managed by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Jewish Hospital will provide additional infrastructure support.
U of L dedicates Delia B. Baxter biomedical research building
U of L took another step toward national preeminence as a major metropolitan research university today with the opening and dedication of the Delia B. Baxter Biomedical Research Building. The new facility, commonly known on U of L’s Health Sciences Center campus as “Baxter II,” is a twin of the Donald E. Baxter, M.D. Biomedical Research Building that opened in 1999.
With more than 130,000 square feet on five levels, the building houses 48 wet labs, 48 support labs, conference facilities and an expansion of the Research Resource Center.
Baxter II will be the research home to teams conducting research in aging, oncology, molecular cardiology, genetics and molecular medicine, bioengineering and pediatrics.
