Baba awarded AHA grant

Shahid P. Baba, Ph.D., was awarded one of four research grants given recently to the University of Louisville by the American Heart Association.

Baba, an instructor in the University of Louisville Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in  the Department of Medicine, was awarded a $132,000 grant to study the heart relating to left ventricular hypertrophy with the goal of developing new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of heart failure.

"Dr. Baba is a promising young investigator and this grant will help him advance towards independence," Dr. Roberto Bolli, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, said.

The four AHA grants, totaling $660,000, were awarded to U of L to aid in the development of new cardiovascular treatments. Overall, the American Heart Association has given a total of $1.63 million in ongoing cardiovascular research grants to the University of Louisville.

"One of the primary goals of the American Heart Association is to provide the necessary funding for state-of-the-art cardiovascular research and treatments," Kathy Renbarger, Executive Director of the Louisville Metro Chapter of the American Heart Association said. "We are pleased to offer our support to the University of Louisville's research projects, and we look forward to seeing the new medical advances that are developed."

The other grants awarded by the AHA include:

• A $308,000 grant was awarded to Dr. Nolan Boyd, assistant professor of surgery in the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, for his work on microvascular repair. The goal of his research is to develop new cardiovascular regenerative medicine strategies through the study of various cells.

• Dr. Paras K. Mishra, assistant professor of physiology and biophysics in the School of Medicine, was awarded $132,000 to further his work to determine why the chance of heart failure increases in diabetic patients and how microRNAs regulate it.

• $88,000 has been awarded to Dr. Rosendo Estrada, postdoctoral research associate in Bioengineering in the Speed School of Engineering, for his study of the effects of fluid flow patterns and how they relate to atherosclerosis, a vascular disease that results in the thickening of the arterial wall.

Three of the grants will be issued through June 2013, while Boyd's grant will further his research through June 2015.