Cardiovascular Research Center Established

Cardiovascular Research Center Established

Alan Daugherty

“This success can be judged by both the large number of co-authored manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals and the number of co-investigators on a substantial number of funded grant applications. Structured interactions are supported through a number of well-attended meetings and programs that have been sustained over a number of years.”

-- Alan Daugherty,
director,
Cardiovascular Research Center,
University of Kentucky

Board of Trustees story

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 9, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees today approved the establishment of a Cardiovascular Research Center in the UK College of Medicine as a center of excellence in basic, translational and clinical cardiovascular research.

“The University of Kentucky is rapidly gaining national and international recognition as a center of excellence in cardiovascular research,” said Alan Daugherty, who will direct the center. “We are glad that the university is providing such a supportive environment for the scientific study of diseases that have a devastating impact on the health of this nation.”

Daugherty is professor of medicine and professor of physiology, UK College of Medicine, and the Gill Foundation Chair in Preventive Cardiology.

The goals of the center are:

To develop a nationally and internationally recognized center of excellence in cardiovascular research;

To provide an environment for the development and retention of productive faculty;
To facilitate the training of students, including postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, medical students and residents; and
To encourage the development of translational and clinical research with funding from federal agencies and industry.

Cardiovascular research is vitally important to this region, particularly to Kentucky. People living in the nine states in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers have a higher risk of dying from coronary artery disease than people in the rest of the United States.

Risk factors for the development of major cardiovascular diseases, such as acute coronary syndromes and stroke, include poor nutrition, smoking and a sedentary lifestyle. However, the full range of factors causing the spread of these diseases has not been defined. Other major cardiovascular diseases, such as abdominal aortic aneurysms, have poorly defined etiologies and limited medical treatment strategies.

“With the university’s exceptional faculty in cardiovascular research, the center will focus on defining diseases that affect Kentuckians and researching the best medical treatments for these devastating diseases,” Daugherty said. “We have obtained substantial funding from both federal and non-federal sources to help in our endeavors.”

The UK Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute, which was established in 1997, contributed to the success of the cardiovascular research center. The institute facilitated informal interactions to take place that led to the development of a highly collaborative environment.

“This success can be judged by both the large number of co-authored manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals and the number of co-investigators on a substantial number of funded grant applications,” Daugherty said. “Structured interactions are supported through a number of well-attended meetings and programs that have been sustained over a number of years.”

Federally funded cardiovascular researchers who will be members of the center are from the colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy and Agriculture and in multiple departments within these colleges.

“The center will enhance the cardiovascular research environment at the University of Kentucky by facilitating both interactions through the consolidated location of some investigators with similar interests within the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences and through collaborations with investigators elsewhere at the university,” Daugherty said. “Many Cardiovascular Research Center faculty also will be part of the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences and will have nutritionally-related, cardiovascular research interests.”