Because hypertension and associated kidney &cardiovascular diseases are highly prevalent in Louisiana, Tulane Health Sciences Center established a Hypertension and Renal Center of Excellence, which has developed rapidly as a consequence of the substantial support received by the COBRE award. COBRE Phases I and II provided support for 16 junior faculty members, of which 7 received NIH research funding, 19 postdoctoral fellows, 12 graduate students, and 29 medical students. In addition, the research infrastructure was markedly enhanced by the Molecular, Imaging, and Analytical Core, with state-of-the art facilities, and Transgenic Animal Core serving members of the Hypertension and Renal Center. For Phase III, the long-term goals are to provide an enriched environment to all investigators so that they can maintain nationally competitive status and to augment and strengthen the biomedical research capacity and infrastructure for Tulane investigators in hypertension, renal and cardiovascular disease. Our long term goals will be achieved through the following aims: 1) To provide support for maintaining the COBRE research CORES developed during Phases I and II that are essential for continuing the center's basic, clinical, and translational research. 2) To enhance the research infrastructure at Tulane Health Sciences Center in the multidisciplinary area of hypertension, renal and vascular biology thus maintaining and increasing national competitiveness for NIH and other federal grants by our faculty investigators. 3) To encourage and facilitate collaborative interactions between basic science investigators and clinical translational scientists in hypertension and related areas at Tulane Health Sciences Center. 4) To sustain a collaborative multidisciplinary research environment by providing support for research pilot projects and mentoring and training components. Collectively, the results will contribute to an increased understanding of the multiple interaction leading to the pathophysiological derangements that lead to hypertension and associated kidney and cardiovascular diseases. This COBRE will continue to increase the number of competitive scientists in a disease specific area of extremely high biomedical relevance in this region.
Hypertension is a leading cause of death and disability affecting over 50 million people in the United States and responsible for 200,000 deaths annually. There is a strong link between hypertension and the kidneys because many forms of hypertension result from abnormalities in kidney function due either to primary or congenital renal disease or to abnormal hormonal or environmental influences that affect renal function leading to progressive renal and vascular injury.
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