VCCBH News

  • Celebrating Larner’s Newest Facility: The Firestone Medical Research Building
    October 28, 2022
    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.
  • VCCBH Symposium Highlights Early Career Investigators, Innovative Multidisciplinary Research
    June 29, 2022
    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.
  • UVM Hosts Second Symposium for Heart and Brain Health
    June 2, 2022
    The Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health's annual symposium was featured in a news story on ABC22 and Fox44. on June 1.
    Read full story from mychamplainvalley.com
  • VCCBH Symposium Presenters Interviewed for Local ABC22/Fox44 Story
    June 2, 2022
    (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.
  • Johnson Awarded R01 NIH Grant
    April 7, 2022
    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.
  • Pipeline Investigator Receives Two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant
    January 14, 2022
    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.
  • Emmett Whitaker, M.D. Receives Mentored Research Training Grant
    October 29, 2021
    Congratulations to Dr. Emmett Whitaker for being awarded a 2021 Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research Mentored Research Training Grant (MRTG).
  • Pilot Grant Award Recipients 2021
    October 1, 2021
    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.
  • Hearts & Brains: UVM’s Newest COBRE Hits Its Stride at One-Year Anniversary
    July 22, 2021
    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.
  • Research Team Uncovers Unexplored Universe of Calcium Signals in the Brain
    July 21, 2021
    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.
  • Cushman & Colleagues' Study Shows Benefits of Early Anticlotting Therapy in Moderate COVID-19
    July 13, 2021
    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.
  • TGIR Research Slam Highlights Progress One Year into Pandemic
    April 7, 2021
    On March 18, 2021, researchers from across UVM came together via Zoom for the second edition of the Translational Global Infectious Diseases Research Center's COVID-19 research slam, titled “UVM Tackles COVID-19: Research Progress and Perspectives One Year into the Pandemic.”
  • Wilcock & Harvard Colleagues’ Study Shows Telestroke Improves Outcomes
    March 4, 2021
    A new study shows that individuals who receive stroke care at facilities that offer consults via stroke telemedicine, known as telestroke, fare better than patients who get stroke care at places without such services, according to researchers from the University of Vermont and the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School.
  • Rokkas Invested as Inaugural Frank P. Ittleman Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery
    February 2, 2021
    International adult aortic surgery expert Chris Rokkas, M.D., Ph.D., was invested as the inaugural Frank P. Ittleman Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine during a remote investiture ceremony held on February 2, 2021 in front of guests from across the United States and around the world.
  • UVM Scientist Plays Lead Role in #BlackinCardio Campaign
    October 19, 2020
    Organized by Black physicians and scientists in the United States and abroad, the #BlackInCardio movement celebrates Black researchers, clinicians, and professionals in cardiovascular fields and raises awareness of cardiovascular diseases that disproportionately effect the Black community. From October 19 - October 25, the new organization will host its first annual #BlackInCardio week.

Recent Stories and Publications Featuring VCCBH Members

Larner College of Medicine Dean's Newsletter, Accolades and Accomplishments

Posted December 4, 2024

On November 16, Larner Assistant Professor of Medicine Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., M.S., moderated a panel on science policy advocacy titled “How can we engage scientists from historically underrepresented backgrounds in policymaking and advocacy?” at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2024 conference in Chicago. The panelists were AHA President Keith Churchwell, M.D.; past AHA President Michelle Albert, M.D., M.P.H.; Emelia Benjamin, M.D., Sc.M., associate provost and professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University; and Carl Streed, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of medicine at Boston University.

Research on spider brain leads to groundbreaking Alzheimer’s discovery

Posted December 3, 2024

Neurodegeneration in spider brain leads Vermont neuroscientists to groundbreaking discovery in Alzheimer’s-affected human brains 
Vermont Business Magazine Researchers from Saint Michael’s College and the University of Vermont have made a groundbreaking new discovery that provides a better understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease develops in the human brain.

Larner College of Medicine Dean's Newsletter, Accolades and Accomplishments

Posted October 23, 2024

In a recent paper published in Nature Communications titled “Endothelial Piezo1 Channel Mediates Mechano-Feedback Control of Brain Blood Flow,” Osama Harraz, Ph.D., Bloomfield Early Career Professor in Cardiovascular Research and assistant professor of pharmacology at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, and his team of researchers from American and European institutions reveal that Piezo1, a lesser-understood protein, acts as a “brake” system, helping blood flow return to normal after neural activity.

The association of leptin and incident hypertension in the reasons for geographic and racial differences in stroke (REGARDS) cohort

Posted October 23, 2024

Leptin is an adipokine associated with obesity and with hypertension in animal models. Whether leptin is associated with hypertension independent of obesity is unclear. Relative to White adults, Black adults have higher circulating leptin concentration.

Assessing prenatal and early childhood social and environmental determinants of health in the HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD)

Posted October 23, 2024

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study, a multi-site prospective longitudinal cohort study, will examine human brain, cognitive, behavioral, social, and emotional development beginning prenatally and planned through early childhood.

Health Watch: UVM researchers unlock secrets of brain blood flow in cognitive health

Posted October 16, 2024

Osama Harraz, Ph.D and his team of researchers at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine have made a breakthrough that could help in the effort to better understand the causes of dementia and how to stop it.

UVM at the Forefront of Stroke and Brain Health Research

Posted October 14, 2024

REGARDS Study Grant Renewed: UVM’s Continued Contributions to Research on Stroke Disparities by Race and Geography. Investigators at the Larner College of Medicine are receiving a $10.1 million multi-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their 23-year program studying stroke and cognitive disorders in the United States.

Larner College of Medicine Dean's Newsletter, Accolades and Accomplishments

Posted October 2, 2024

Investigators at the Larner College of Medicine have received a $10.1 million multi-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue their work on the REGARDS project. The purpose of the project is to understand why those in some U.S. regions develop more strokes and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia than others, and why Black people develop more strokes than white people.

Larner College of Medicine Dean's Newsletter, Accolades and Accomplishments

Posted August 21, 2024

Mark Nelson, Ph.D., chair and University Distinguished Professor of pharmacology, gave the Björn Folkow Lecture at the 15th Mechanisms of Vasodilation/Endothelium-Dependent Hyperpolarization (MOVD/EDH) 2024 conference July 2–5 at Magdalen College in Oxford, United Kingdom.