Contact: Allison Elliott

Dennis Bruemmer

The award program seeks to recognize researchers, still in the formative stages of their careers, who show the potential to be future leaders in the field of cardiovascular research.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 3, 2005) -- University of Kentucky researcher Dr. Dennis Bruemmer received the prestigious 2005 Irvine Page Award for Young Investigators at last week’s meeting of the American Heart Association in Washington, D.C.

Bruemmer, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Molecular Medicine UK College of Medicine, is also a faculty member of the UK Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Center. He came to UK from a faculty position at the University of California, Los Angeles, and attended medical school at University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Bruemmer has won several national research awards, and serves on several peer review committees, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Progression of Cardiovascular Disease in Type I Diabetes Grant Review Panel. He has published over 60 articles, book chapters and abstracts.

“Dr. Bruemmer exemplifies what we are about at the UK Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Center – innovative science performed by excellent researchers. We are very pleased to see one of our young physician scientists win this prestigious award,” said Alan Daug herty, UK Gill Heart Institute’s associate chair of medicine for physician scientist training, the Gill Foundation Chair in Preventive Cardiology, and professor of medicine and physiology, UK College of Medicine.

Competition for the Irvine Page Award is open to new investigators in arteriosclerosis and vascular biology. New investigators are defined as those who have been active in a research environment for no more than five years since completing a graduate degree. The award program seeks to recognize researchers, still in the formative stages of their careers, who show the potential to be future leaders in the field of cardiovascular research.

The UK Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute provides a central focus for cardiovascular disease care, including clinics; non-invasive cardiac diagnostics; invasive cardiac techniques such as cardiac catheterization, angioplasty and electrophysiology; a base for the physicians providing this care; and a special focus on counseling cardiac patients and their families. The clinical programs of the institute target the high rate of heart disease prevalent in Kentucky, while the research and teaching programs work to advance cardiovascular care throughout the world.

The institute has its origins in the 1997 donation of $5 million from Linda and Jack Gill of Houston, Texas, to UK to build the Gill Heart Institute facility and establish three endowed chairs and 10 endowed professorships. The Gills’ donation was augmented by matching funds from the Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund.