Our Mission
The mission of the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center is to support interdisciplinary research in basic, translational and clinical cardiovascular sciences, including cardiovascular development, function, pathophysiology, pharmacology, genetics, genomics, and proteomics, and to apply this knowledge to better understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases and to pioneer development of new innovative therapies and approaches to prevent or treat them.
Goals and Objectives
- To support basic, translational, and clinical research that can be translated into therapies and improve patient care
- To provide resources that enhance research in cardiovascular related diseases
- To disseminate knowledge by lectures, seminars and other educational opportunities
- To support training of pre- and postgraduate students, residents and fellows in the cardiovascular sciences and cardiovascular medicine
- To help integrate cardiovascular research across labs, departments, and schools at UVA as well as with outside institutions including facilitating collaborative studies
- To assist CVRC investigators in developing a plan for translating research findings into products or procedures that benefit patients including providing advice on protecting intellectual property, establishing biotech startup companies, and licensing technology to companies
Dr. Jeff Saucerman and his team have New Insights About How Heart Cells Regenerate that May Lead to New Drugs to Fix Damaged Hearts
New research from UVA Health scientists seeking to identify drugs to regenerate tissue after a heart attack is highlighting the promise of their approach. The team, led by Jeff Saucerman, PhD, previously developed a method to identify drugs that might … Read More
Dr. Lian-Wang Guo, Dr. Coleen McNamara, and Dr. Craig Kent Awarded $2.8 Million to Study New Approach for Treating Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
New School of Medicine research led by Lian-Wang Guo, PhD, a professor of surgery; Craig Kent, MD, chief executive officer of UVA Health, executive vice president for health affairs, and professor of surgery; and Coleen McNamara, MD, a professor of … Read More
Dr. Brant Isakson of the CVRC Awarded a $2.6 Million Grant to Study the Role of Renin in Hypertension
Hypertension is the most common pathological indicator for cardiovascular diseases. The key biological system that regulates blood pressure is the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS); its dysregulation at almost any level can precipitate hypertension. For this reason, pathways in the RAAS can … Read More
Mete Civelek, PhD, Receives Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association
Mete Civelek, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a resident faculty of the Center for Public Health Genomics, received the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. The five-year grant supports established investigators who … Read More
Ken Walsh, PhD, Awarded $2.9 Million to Study Cardiac Amyloidosis, a Deadly Form of Heart Failure
Ken Walsh, PhD, the Lockhart B. McGuire Professor of Internal Medicine and director of the Hematovascular Biology Center in the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, was awarded a $2.9 million NIH grant for a project titled “Mosaic Loss of … Read More
Yen-Lin Chen, PhD, Awarded NIH Pathway to Independence K99/R00 Award
Yen-Lin Chen, PhD, a research scientist in Sonkusare Lab in the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC), was awarded the NIH Pathway to Independence (K99/R00) Award. This award will support studies of the role of lymph vessel calcium signaling … Read More
CVTG RIP-Alex Clark & Madeline Jackson
Alex Clark - Systems analysis of gene regulatory networks driving cardiomyocyte identity Madeline Jackson - The role of Cx37 in lymphatic valve formation
Eugene Chen, MD, PhD
Transgenic Rabbits for Cardiovascular Research and Drug Development Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Genome-wide association studies are powerful epidemiological tools to find genes and variants associated with CVD while follow-up biological studies allow … Read More
Matteo Morello, MD and Santosh Karnewar, PhD
Cavitation Facilitated AAV Transduction This presentation will focus on multidisciplinary collaborative studies between CVRC and BME that investigating how ultrasound cavitation of microbubble contrast agents can produce site-targeted augmentation of AAV to the heart. These studies are intended to optimize … Read More