by Matt Batcheldor
Two Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute researchers are receiving awards from the American Heart Association.
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Jonathan Brown, MD, assistant professor of Medicine and Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, is receiving the Collaborative Sciences Award for his research, “DNA Base Editing as a Therapeutic Strategy in Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome.”
The three-year award totaling $750,000 is for research involving two principal investigators from different scientific disciplines.
Brown and David Liu, a chemist/biologist at the Broad Institute, are studying a new genome therapy called adenine base editing that can correct the single point mutation that causes Progeria, an accelerated aging disease.
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Vineet Agrawal, MD, PhD, instructor in Medicine, is receiving the Career Development Award for his research, “A Pathogenic Role for Natriuretic Peptide Receptor C in Pulmonary Hypertension and HFpEF.”
The three-year award totaling $231,000 supports Agrawal’s research into how the regulation of natriuretic peptide signaling adversely affects right ventricular structure and function in an animal model of obesity-induced pulmonary hypertension and HFpEF.