by Matt Batcheldor
Two Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute researchers are receiving awards from the American Heart Association.
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.
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.