The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health (VCCBH) is a Phase 1 NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) building sustainable research programs with exceptional early career faculty. Our growing Center has funded 9 Research Project Leaders and 7 Pilot Project Leaders and has supported 55 individuals in our Pipeline Investigator Program. Co-led by University Distinguished Professors Mary Cushman, MD and Mark Nelson, PhD, the VCCBH focuses on vital health problems facing society, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and cognitive impairment. Since the Center’s founding in August 2020, we have leveraged $12 million in NIH funding and millions in institutional financial support to recruit, support, and retain early career faculty. We collaborate with 13 UVM departments and provide mentoring and core resources to our investigators. Accomplishments include:
- Recruited 6 assistant professors and 3 associate professors in 4 departments
- Grant application funding rate of 56%, with 28 funded grants totaling $13.9 million
- 82 peer-reviewed research articles
- Research cores, Study Design and Molecular Epidemiology, and Customized Physiology and Imaging, that provide services to >100 UVM researchers in experimental design, biostatistics, molecular epidemiology, translating basic research findings to human populations, state-of-the-art capabilities for fixed and live cell and in vivo imaging, device fabrication, and image analysis. Cores have supported 90 unique projects leading to 41 peer-reviewed research articles to date.
- Five $200,000 Pilot Grants and one 60K Seed Grant awarded to early career faculty on topics including vascular dysfunction in migraine, cardiovascular care in cancer patients, and modeling exercise intolerance in human cardiac slice preparations
- Annual Scientific Symposium featuring cross-disciplinary discussion and internationally recognized scientists
- Monthly conference including visiting professors
- Innovative peer mentoring program
- Communications committee maintaining a website, Twitter feed, and news updates to facilitate outreach to state, national and international partners.