This is a MORE Faculty Development Award Proposal submitted by Dr. Kothapa N. Chetty, Professor of Biological Sciences at Grambling State University (GSU) at Grambling, Louisiana. The goal of this MORE Faculty Development Award is to provide Dr. Chetty with the opportunity to obtain advanced training and experience the techniques and concepts of molecular and cellular physiology in ischemia-reperfusion research. The acquisition of this experience will be essential for Dr. Chetty's future research career in ischemia-reperfusion research. It will also enable him to offer his students the opportunity to learn new techniques and to use them in their biological studies and research, and to enhance the research training environment of the home institution, GSU. The proposed sponsor is Dr. D. Neil Granger, a distinguished physiologist and biomedical researcher, who serves as Boyd Professor and Head of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport (LSUHSC-Shreveport), Louisiana. The specific objectives of the research plan are: (1) to introduce Dr. Chetty to new concepts and techniques in the physiology of ischemia-reperfusion research; (2) to offer him the opportunity to participate in on-going research in the laboratory of Dr. Granger at LSUHSC-Shreveport; (3) to provide Dr. Chetty an opportunity to author publications which will demonstrate the research productivity required to be competitive for an RO1 grant, and (4) to provide the opportunity to establish long-term research collaborations with highly succesful researchers at LSUHSC-Shreveport. The MORE Faculty Award research plan will consist of: (1) training in the mechanisms that underlie the exaggerated responses to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in hypercholesterolemic animals, including an assessment of the contribution of an enhanced oxidant production to the leukocyte-endothelial cell adhesion, capillary malperfusion, tissue hypoxia, cytokine production and cellular necrosis elicited by I/R (2) participation in an on-going research project on wild-type and LDL-receptor knockout mice with normal and elevated serum cholesterol levels, including the use of intravital fluorescence microscopy to monitor the microvascular dysfunction that results from I/R, and (3) participation in seminars, journal club and relevant course work that are presently provided in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at LSUHSC- Shreveport. The experience will be fashioned to provide Dr. Chetty with a solid background in the pathophysiology of ischemia-reperfusion injury and the influence of hypercholesteremia on this disease process. He will devote 100 percent of his time to the proposed research activities for three months during the summer in each year of the award, and will maintain continuity of the research plan during the academic year.
