Little Eggs Make Big Decisions
The Heart Research Center brought Tom Fleming, PhD, an internationally recognized development expert, to deliver the 2008 Annual Lecture. Dr. Fleming is Professor of Developmental Biology at the University of Southampton. He discussed the mechanisms regulating early mammalian development. Following fertilization, the egg undergoes a series of cell divisions to form a blastocyst which implants in the uterus wall. The cells from the blastocyst form the placenta and the fetus. Dr. Fleming discussed how maternal diet or culture conditions can affect blastocyst development and influence its development and long-term potential.
We are pleased to make a video of Dr. Flemings lecture available to you.
The HRC 2009 Annual Lecture is scheduled for April 30, 2009. Details will be posted as they become available.
TRANSLATING HEART RESEARCH INTO PATIENT TREATMENT
Dr. Jack Kron exemplifies the Heart Research Center’s focus on translating research into patient care.
Dr. Kron, professor of Medicine, director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory, and a member of the Heart Research Center, specializes in electrophysiology and clinical arrhythmia treatment (irregular heartbeat).
Millions of people experience irregular heartbeat during their lives. For most of us, these experiences are harmless and not indicative of heart disease.
For some of us, however, such rhythm disturbances can be serious and sometimes fatal. And at times, due to underlying heart disease, the possibility of arrhythmia and associated risks is increased.
Preventing Disease Before It Occurs - New Start Up Company to Focus on Genetic Predisposition
Cheryl Maslen, professor and associate director of the OHSU Heart Research Center, was featured in the Portland Business Journal for providing the intellectual property that launched Portland Bioscience, Inc., an OHSU start-up company that will identify patients at risk for disease and begin treatment before symptoms ever occur. Read the full story at http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2007/12/24/focus1.html?t=printable.
M.J.Murdock Charitable Trust Grant to Develop Unique Ultrasound Technologies for Treating and Preventing Heart Disease
(November 1, 2007) PORTLAND, Ore. - Heart experts agree that prevention and early diagnosis are the best ways to reduce the tragic toll of cardiovascular disease. Now, with help from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Oregon Health & Science University heart specialists will lead the way toward more precise and less-invasive methods for preventing, detecting and treating the nation’s Number 1 killer. The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has awarded OHSU a $650,000 grant - its largest ever to the university - to construct an ultra-high-speed digital camera.
OHSU Researchers Identify Master Switch That Regulates Blood Pressure
PORTLAND, Ore. – A team of Oregon Health & Science University researchers 
studying a rare form of hypertension has identified the mechanism by which they believe a protein complex in the kidney operates as a master switch that regulates blood pressure, a finding that has broad implications for the treatment of more common forms of hypertension. The team led by David H. Ellison, M.D. – whose findings are described in a paper being published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation – likens the switch to a rheostat that modulates the balance of salt and potassium in the kidney, thereby raising or lowering blood pressure.
studying a rare form of hypertension has identified the mechanism by which they believe a protein complex in the kidney operates as a master switch that regulates blood pressure, a finding that has broad implications for the treatment of more common forms of hypertension. The team led by David H. Ellison, M.D. – whose findings are described in a paper being published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation – likens the switch to a rheostat that modulates the balance of salt and potassium in the kidney, thereby raising or lowering blood pressure.Hip Size of Mothers Linked To Breast Cancer In Daughters (press release - October 9, 2007)
PORTLAND, Ore. - In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer. Wide, round hips, the researchers postulated, represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer.
Improving Communication Among Researchers
Several years ago, Dr. Kent Thornburg crossed paths with the OHSU chief of cardiac surgery who was on his way to an operation for a child with outflow obstruction to the right ventricle. (The right ventricle had to work terribly hard to pump blood through that vessel.) When the chief wondered out loud what happened to the heart muscle when this happens, Thornburg knew there was a problem with his organization. “There are people in my lab who are working on that problem,” he told his colleague. The chief had no idea.
HRC Researcher Gains Recognition
Dr. Sumeet Chugh, the director of the Cardiac Arryhthmia Center at OHSU and member of the HRC, and his research were the subject of a recent article in the Portland Tribune.
Chugh...believes cardiac arrest isn’t random, and it isn’t unpredictable. He has spent much of his career trying to figure out patterns in the disease, and now he aims to use...drops of blood to help to take his research even further, helping devise tests that will tell physicians who is likely to suffer cardiac arrest before it happens.
Congratulations Dr. Chugh!
