New Orleans, LA – LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans has been awarded $10,058,325 in funding over five years by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health. This Center of Biological Research Excellence (COBRE) grant funds cardiovascular research projects and provides mentoring to junior faculty, enabling them to successfully compete nationally for research funding. The competitive award continues the program funded by the initial $10.5 million cardiovascular COBRE grant awarded to LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans in 2003 and brings the total funded by NCRR to this project to more than $20.5 million over ten years.
"This $10 million competitive award represents a significant sign of recovery and recognition of the quality of research here at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans," notes Dr. Larry Hollier, LSUHSC Chancellor. "This type of grant is even more valuable than the monetary award because grants like this provide comprehensive support to the research pipeline. They not only fund basic science research which underlies treatment advances, but they also help develop the next generation of competitively funded faculty research scientists."
The selection of Junior and Developing Investigators is highly competitive and is based upon the quality of their research proposals, the stage of career development and their potential for development as independently funded investigators.
"The goal of our COBRE grant is to provide strong mentoring and research support to a select group of outstanding scientists and clinicians who focus on understanding mechanisms of cardiovascular disease to the development of novel therapeutics," says Dr. Daniel Kapusta, Professor of Pharmacology at LSUHSC-New Orleans, who is principal investigator and Director of the Cardiovascular COBRE program. "This grant will help to launch the careers of these developing scientists and expand the number of nationally funded investigators in New Orleans and the State of Louisiana," says Kapusta. He also adds, "This COBRE grant provides a platform to transition our cardiovascular biology program to a self-sustaining and nationally recognized Cardiovascular Center of Excellence at LSUHSC. The need for such a mission is apparent from the tragic state of cardiovascular disease not only in the United States, but within our home state of Louisiana."
The funding will support four research projects and one pilot project of LSUHSC junior faculty investigators. Junior faculty are Eric Lazartigues, PhD, LSUHSC Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, T. Cooper Woods, PhD, LSUHSC Instructor of Pharmacology who is also a Staff Scientist at Ochsner Clinic Foundation, Catalin Filipeanu, MD, PhD, LSUHSC Assistant Professor-Research of Pharmacology, Jerome Breslin, PhD, LSUHSC Assistant Professor of Physiology, and Developing Investigator Hernan Bazan, MD, LSUHSC Assistant Professor of Surgery.
Dr. Lazartigues' project will examine a newly discovered component of blood pressure regulation called ACE2 to determine its significance in the development of hypertension. Dr. Woods's project will help to explain why diabetics who have stents placed in their coronary arteries are at increased risk for re-stenosis or reclosure of the arteries. Dr. Filipeanu's project will study how specific proteins in cells of blood vessels cause excessive contraction which leads to discoloration and pain in the fingers and toes of patients with Raynaud Phenomenon. Dr. Breslin's work will increase our understanding of the basic mechanisms of blood-tissue exchange and the potentially life-threatening fluid leakage involved in inflammation, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and sepsis. Dr. Bazan's project is designed to fill major gaps in our knowledge regarding the process of carotid plaque instability and rupture resulting in stroke.
"In the state of Louisiana, the incidence rate for cardiovascular disease is disproportionately high, particularly for African-Americans," said Sidney A. McNairy, PhD, Associate Director of NCRR's Division of Research Infrastructure.
According to the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics, an estimated 79.4 million American adults, or one in three, have one or more types of cardiovascular disease. These include high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, and congenital cardiovascular defects. Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in America, with an average death of one death every 36 seconds. Cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year than cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, accidents and diabetes mellitus combined.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospital's and the American Heart Association's 2005 Louisiana State of the Heart and Stroke Report, cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, was the number one killer of Louisianians in 2002, accounting for 35% of all deaths. In 2002, Louisiana had the ninth highest mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease and twelfth highest mortality rate for stroke when compared to all states and D.C.
Carotid artery disease is an important cause of cerebrovascular disease and continues to be a major health care problem, contributing to at least 200,000 cases of stroke each year in the United States. In almost half of these cases, death follows within a year.
"In addition to the value of research programs like this in terms of lives saved and improved quality of life, the LSUHSC research enterprise is a robust economic engine, attracting millions of outside dollars to the city and state that also support jobs in a highly desirable industry," said Dr. Steve Nelson, Dean of LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans' School of Medicine.
NCRR's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) support thematic multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program.
COBREs are expected to grow through the promotion of collaborative interactive efforts among researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills, and expertise; and to compete independently for external peer-reviewed center or program project grant support. In some instances, COBRE support will facilitate the development of new disease-specific research centers or augment the capability of existing centers. COBRE is a part of the Institutional Development Award program.
LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans educates the majority of Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's academic health leader, LSUHSC comprises a School of Medicine, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSUHSC faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout Louisiana. In the vanguard of biosciences research in a number of areas worldwide, LSUHSC faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, better treat, or cure disease.
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), provides laboratory scientists and clinical researchers with the resources and training they need to understand, detect, treat and prevent a wide range of diseases. NCRR supports all aspects of translational and clinical research, connecting researchers, patients and communities across the nation. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov .