Lexington, KY – The University of Kentucky has been awarded an $11.3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The donation is one of the largest health grants ever received by the institution.
The grant will support an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in an effort to help fund research that focuses on obesity and cardiovascular disease.
The IDeA program builds research capacities in states that historically have low levels of NIH funding by supporting basic, clinical and translational research, faculty development and infrastructure improvements.
This Phase 2 grant comes after the Phase 1 COBRE program, in which 90 percent of junior faculty successfully competed for additional NIH funding.
“This research funding represents a win for UK in two areas,” said UK Provost Christine Riordan. “First, we will have more firepower to take on obesity and related cardiovascular diseases in the state of Kentucky. Second, we will be able to grow our next generation of excellent faculty through the mentorship component inherent in the project.”
Lisa Cassis, the program director of the grant, is enthusiastic about the research opportunities provided by the new funds. “We know that people who are obese are dying of cardiovascular conditions,” she said, “but right now we need to do more work to understand the exact mechanisms by which obesity influences cardiovascular health. The $11.3 million in funding we have received will enable us to identify pivotal pathways that link obesity to cardiovascular diseases so that we can improve the health of people at risk.”
The soon-to-be conducted research will include a variety of studies, from laboratory research conducted at the cellular level, to bedside translational research conducted in pediatric and adult patients.
Projects will focus on determining causes for obesity, the impact obesity has in recovering from heart attack, obesity-induced inflammation and how this influences the cardiovascular system, and imaging of heart dynamics and function in obese children.
“UK has made a promise to the people of this state that we will be there in the future, just as we are today, working to improve the lives of our fellow Kentuckians,” said UK President Dr. Eli Capilouto. “This project represents the fulfillment of that promise today, as we move forward with research to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it gives us future hope that our junior investigators will continue this work into the next generation. Today and tomorrow, we will move forward with basic and clinical research that will help real people with real health problems.”