MU Biomedical - News

Grant award approved for MU September 25, 2009 @ 12:00 AM The Herald-Dispatch HUNTINGTON A more than $500,000 grant award has been approved for Marshall University's Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Toxicology through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a release from Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. The $529,094 grant for cardiovascular research approved by the National Institutes of Health supplements existing funding that attempts to discover biomarkers to identify people who are predisposed to heart disease. The grant will take fat samples from around the heart of patients undergoing heart bypass and heart valve replacement surgeries. Once the biomarkers are identified, the research team will attempt to identify those same markers in blood samples. If the research is successful, it could lead to non-invasive testing for heart disease predisposition and allow for preventative treatment. "The long term goal of this study is to better understand the risk of obesity to cardiovascular disease in the State of West Virginia and Appalachian region," said Dr. Nalini Santanam, professor at Marshall University's Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Toxicology, in a press release. "This study is a collaboration of basic scientists from Marshall and partner institutions in WV with clinicians and surgeons from St. Mary's Heart Center and Cabell Huntington Hospital. This funding will also provide training opportunities to undergraduate, graduate and medical students from West Virginia to conduct translational research at Marshall," Santanam said.