M2s complete hypertension research program

Three medical students recently finished a summer research program aimed at increasing their interest in becoming physician scientists.

During the 10-week program sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Cardiovascular Renal Research and the American Heart Association, second-year medical students Megan Storm, Ryan Davidovich and Jay Hogg dove into hypertension research.

Dr. Joey Granger, professor of physiology and medicine, and director of the cardiovascular renal research center, recommended the students for the program. An American Heart Association Institutional Health Sciences Fellowship grant paid each of the students a $4,000 stipend.

Storm worked in the laboratory of Dr. David Stec, associate professor of physiology, helping with a project investigating the role of heme oxygenase in regulating hypertension. Davidovich worked alongside Dr. Alejandro Chade, associate professor of physiology, researching endothelin receptors in the regulation of hypertension.

Hogg worked in the physiology lab of Dr. Babette LaMarca, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, on two separate projects. In one, they targeted the role of IL17, an inflammatory cytokine, in preeclampsia. In the other, they examined genetic markers in uterine fibroid tumors.

The students took medical physiology in their first year of medical school, but this hands-on laboratory experience took that knowledge to a new, applied level, they said.

For more information on the AHA-sponsored summer research program for medical students, call the Cardiovascular Renal Center at 5-1436.