Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health

Katharine Cheung, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine, assumed the role of Interim Director of the Center on Aging, effective September 1. A geriatric and palliative nephrologist, Cheung served on the center’s advisory board from 2017-2023. As interim director, Cheung's top priorities include relaunching pilot grants for faculty who are interested in pursuing research focused on gerontology or geriatric issues.

Each summer, many rising second-year medical students engage in clinical, basic science or health policy-related research projects under the guidance of expert faculty. The students choose their topics based on personal passions and immerse themselves in projects tackling medical puzzles and unmet health needs. Engaging in research can be among the most valuable experiences during a medical education.

Emmett Whitaker, M.D., FAAP, associate professor of anesthesiology, neurological sciences, and pediatrics, received a substantial R35 MIRA grant from NIGMS for his study “Vascular Determinants of Anesthesia-Induced Hypotension at the Extremes of Age.” This five-year project—the department’s first NIH grant—addresses intraoperative hypotension in neonates, infants, and older adults under anesthesia.

The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health supports research by early-career scientists who are investigating the mysteries of the heart-brain connection. The researchers are sharing their findings at a symposium on June 15-16 at UVM’s Davis Center.

The University of Vermont (UVM) recently recognized Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., Stephen Higgins, Ph.D., and Gary Stein, Ph.D., as University Distinguished Professors, and Sarah Heil, Ph.D., was named a 2023-24 University Scholar.

The University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine features some of the world’s foremost cardiovascular researchers, experts in cardiovascular disease risk factors, thrombosis, atherosclerosis, stroke, and heart failure. the science shared by early-career investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont’s fourth annual Viridis Montis Challenge, it was apparent that the institution’s reputation and legacy in the field of cardiovascular research will continue to have a global impact.

Racial minorities and people with lower incomes or who are insured by Medicare or Medicaid are significantly less likely to receive the most advanced therapies and more likely to die after suffering a pulmonary embolism, according to a new analysis conducted by University of Vermont Professor of Medicine Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., and colleagues.

These awards, supported wholly by funds from UVM entities, provide $200,000 over 2 years to fund meritorious research from early career faculty. We are very grateful to Deans from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Arts & Sciences, Engineering & Mathematical Sciences, and the Graduate College, as well as the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Vermont, for their support of this program. In addition, we would like to acknowledge matching fund support from the Departments of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Medicine.

On October 27, 2022, the UVM Larner College of Medicine held a grand opening and dedication of the newest addition to the medical campus: the Firestone Medical Research Building.

More than 100 in-person and dozens of virtual participants attended the second annual Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health (VCCBH) Symposium, held at the University of Vermont’s Davis Center June 2 to 3, 2022. The VCCBH, one of three National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence-funded programs at UVM, is co-directed by Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor and vice chair for emerging researchers in the Department of Medicine, and Mark Nelson, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health's annual symposium was featured in a news story on ABC22 and Fox44. on June 1.

(JUNE 2, 2022) Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation and Movement Science Denise Peters, PT, D.P.T., Ph.D., was among those interviewed for a segment on the second annual VCCBH symposium that aired on Local ABC22/Fox44.

Congratulations to Abbie Chapman Johnson, Ph.D., for receiving her first R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and the NIH National Institute on Aging.

I’m pleased to tell you that our own Dr. Tim Plante received the Sandra Daugherty Award for Excellence in Hypertension or Epidemiology at the AHA Epidemiology/Lifestyle conference in Chicago yesterday! His abstract was presented as an oral presentation today and was based on his research funded by the CVRI Bloomfield Professorship, “Inflammatory cytokines and incident hypertension in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study.”

Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate in medicine and a researcher in the Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research, has received a two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant from the American Heart Association. The grant will support her research in the REasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) national longitudinal cohort study, which has followed 30,239 Black and white adults since 2003 in an effort to determine why Black Americans and those living in the Southeast have higher stroke mortality.

Congratulations to Dr. Emmett Whitaker for being awarded a 2021 Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG).

It is with great pleasure that we announce the recipients of our inaugural Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health Pilot Grant Award, Drs Yangguang Ou and David Punihaole.

Not only is Vermont small and rural, but it’s also old. Currently, the state is ranked fourth in the nation for the relative number of residents over 65 years old – a whopping nearly 20 percent of Vermont’s population and rising. And with that status comes a disproportionately large share of heart disease, as well as blood vessel diseases and brain circulation problems that can lead to dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

UVM and University of Maryland researchers have shown how the brain communicates to blood vessels when in need of energy, and how these blood vessels respond to direct blood flow to specific brain regions -- information that can help determine what goes wrong in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, where faulty blood flow is a predictor for cognitive impairment.

New trial results from the University of Vermont and an international team of researchers show that administering a full dose of a standard blood thinner early to moderately ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 could reduce the risk of severe disease and death.