Research
Major Areas of Research
- Human Physicology: pathophysiology and clinical asssessment of arterial stiffness and systolic hypertension, mechanisms of stress responses and vasoractivity
- Clinical Trials: Antihypertensive and cardiovascular drug development with emphasis on macrovascular disease indicators.
- Basic Investigation (in collaboration with Dr. Knight): sympathetic neurinal signal transduction.
Our studies
in the field of hypertension
have included basic investigation
and applied pharmaceutical
approaches to investigate
the characteristics of
individual and population-based
responses to drug therapy,
especially why individuals
respond differentially
to specific drugs.
Specific
focus areas of interest
have included sympathetic
neuronal signaling systems
and clinicalphysiology
of the sympathetic nervous
system. Vascular research
themes include exaggerated
vasoreactivity and the
assessment of arterial
stiffness and other biophysical
changes related to aging
and hypertension. Other
long-term interests involve
clinical trials in hypertension
and cardiovascular diseases
and clinical outcomes
in cardiovascular diseases.
Current Research Strengths
Program faculty have particular strengths in the featured subdisciplines of- Autonomic-cardiovascular-hypertension (cellular and integrative)
- Antibiotics-infectious diseases
- Pharmacologic data analysis and outcomes research
- Drug development sciences
Current Research Projects
The scope of research projects in both the Department of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacokinetics Laboratory, Millard Fillmore Health System, is wide-ranging. Ongoing projects by core faculty and fellows include but are not limited to:- Classical research in drug development, including studies of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, particularly in cardiovascular, antibiotic, and anti-diabetic drugs
- Outcomes research using novel modeling and drug monitoring techniques
- Local and systemic pharmacodynamic effects of vasoactive drugs
- Cardiovascular pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and cardiovascular reactivity
- Antimicrobial pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and sepsis research
- Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling
- Renal and hepatic pharmacokinetic studies
- pH-dependent drug absorption studies
- Development of biobehavioral techniques that are applicable to testing pharmaceutical agents (e.g., cardiovascular effects of mental stress)
- Cellular physiology.- physiological and pharmacological studies in isolated cardiomyocytes, vascular smooth muscle cells and adrenergic neurons
- Pharmacology of L-type calcium channels in cultured neurons and vascular smooth muscle
- Clinical trials of cardiovascular, metabolic, anti-infective, and antiinflammatory drugs (Phases I-IV)