News

A Review by Dr. Zhen Yan Shows Support that Exercise can Prevent or Reduce the Severity of ARDS from COVID-19

A review by Zhen Yan of the University of Virginia School of Medicine showed that medical research findings strongly support the possibility that exercise can prevent or at least reduce the severity of ARDS, which affects between 3% and 17% of all patients with COVID-19.

Dr. Yan, the director of the Center for Skeletal Muscle Research at UVA`s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, compiled an in-depth review of existing medical research, including his own, looking at an antioxidant known as extracellular superoxide dismutase, or EcSOD. This potent antioxidant hunts down harmful free radicals, protecting our tissues and helping to prevent disease. Our muscles naturally make EcSOD, secreting it into the circulation to allow binding to other vital organs, but its production is enhanced by cardiovascular exercise.

Tess Gibson from Wolf Lab Awarded First Place at 36th Annual Richard D. Katz Undergraduate Research Symposium

Tess Gibson, a senior undergraduate in the Wolf lab, was awarded first place at the 36th Annual Richard D. Katz Undergraduate Research Symposium at UVA for her research project, Developing a Novel Cell Cycle Reporter for Transcriptomics. Congratulations!

2020 AHA Fellowship Grant Writing Workshop with Dr. Gary Owens

Speaker: Gary Owens, PhD

Sonkusare Lab Explores why Obesity Causes High Blood Pressure

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered why obesity causes high blood pressure and identified potential ways of treating that form of high blood pressure.

Sonkusare and colleagues found that a protein on the membranes surrounding endothelial cells allows calcium to enter the cells and maintains normal blood pressure. Obesity, it turns out, affects this protein, called TRPV4, within tiny subsections of the cell membrane. Sonkusare calls these faulty subsections "pathological microdomains."

"Under healthy conditions, TRPV4 at these tiny microdomains helps maintain normal blood pressure. We, for the first time, show the sequence of events that lead to a harmful microenvironment for calcium entry through TRPV4," he said. "I think the concept of pathological microdomains is going to be very important not just for obesity-related studies, but for studies of other cardiovascular disorders as well."

UVA honors Dr. Walsh with Distinguished Researcher Award

The University of Virginia's top leaders gathered Wednesday evening at the Boar's Head Resort to honor faculty members from across Grounds for their outstanding contributions to their fields of study and societal impact through their research and scholarly activities.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan presented the 2019 Research Achievement Awards to 13 UVA faculty members at the dinner event.

Walsh is Lockhart B. McGuire Professor of Internal Medicine and directs the School of Medicine's Hematovascular Biology Center. His research is focused on clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or "CHIP".

In his lab, he is looking at how mutations in blood cells lead to chronic diseases like heart attack and stroke. Through precision medicine, he is identifying and combatting the out-of-control multiplying process in these mutations to fight age-related diseases, as well as blood cancers like leukemia.

Walsh has published more than 350 scientific articles and he is the recipient of multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health, including a MERIT Award. In 2011, the American Heart Association designated him a "Distinguished Scientist" by for his contributions to cardiovascular research.