Our Mission
The mission of the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center is to support interdisciplinary research in basic, translational and clinical cardiovascular sciences, including cardiovascular development, function, pathophysiology, pharmacology, genetics, genomics, and proteomics, and to apply this knowledge to better understand the causes of cardiovascular diseases and to pioneer development of new innovative therapies and approaches to prevent or treat them.
Goals and Objectives
- To support basic, translational, and clinical research that can be translated into therapies and improve patient care
- To provide resources that enhance research in cardiovascular related diseases
- To disseminate knowledge by lectures, seminars and other educational opportunities
- To support training of pre- and postgraduate students, residents and fellows in the cardiovascular sciences and cardiovascular medicine
- To help integrate cardiovascular research across labs, departments, and schools at UVA as well as with outside institutions including facilitating collaborative studies
- To assist CVRC investigators in developing a plan for translating research findings into products or procedures that benefit patients including providing advice on protecting intellectual property, establishing biotech startup companies, and licensing technology to companies
Dr. Antonio Abbate, Dr. Jeff Saucerman, and Dr. Stefano Toldo Awarded $3.1 Million to Study How Treatments Targeting Lipoprotein Receptors Improve Outcomes in Heart Attacks and Heart Failure
Backed by a new four-year $3.1 million National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant, School of Medicine researchers Antonio Abbate, MD, PhD, Jeff Saucerman, PhD, and Stefano Toldo, PhD, have initiated a new study to examine cell-specific low-density lipoprotein receptor … Read More
Dr. Jeff Saucerman and his team have New Insights About How Heart Cells Regenerate that May Lead to New Drugs to Fix Damaged Hearts
New research from UVA Health scientists seeking to identify drugs to regenerate tissue after a heart attack is highlighting the promise of their approach. The team, led by Jeff Saucerman, PhD, previously developed a method to identify drugs that might … Read More
Dr. Lian-Wang Guo, Dr. Coleen McNamara, and Dr. Craig Kent Awarded $2.8 Million to Study New Approach for Treating Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
New School of Medicine research led by Lian-Wang Guo, PhD, a professor of surgery; Craig Kent, MD, chief executive officer of UVA Health, executive vice president for health affairs, and professor of surgery; and Coleen McNamara, MD, a professor of … Read More
Dr. Brant Isakson of the CVRC Awarded a $2.6 Million Grant to Study the Role of Renin in Hypertension
Hypertension is the most common pathological indicator for cardiovascular diseases. The key biological system that regulates blood pressure is the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS); its dysregulation at almost any level can precipitate hypertension. For this reason, pathways in the RAAS can … Read More
Mete Civelek, PhD, Receives Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association
Mete Civelek, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and a resident faculty of the Center for Public Health Genomics, received the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. The five-year grant supports established investigators who … Read More
Ken Walsh, PhD, Awarded $2.9 Million to Study Cardiac Amyloidosis, a Deadly Form of Heart Failure
Ken Walsh, PhD, the Lockhart B. McGuire Professor of Internal Medicine and director of the Hematovascular Biology Center in the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, was awarded a $2.9 million NIH grant for a project titled “Mosaic Loss of … Read More
Morris White, PhD
Follistatin mediates MASLD and MASH during hepatic insulin resistance on a high fructose diet MASLD (metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease) and its progression to steatohepatitis (MASH) correlates with IR (insulin resistance). However, mice with complete hepatic IR owing to hepatic … Read More
Giuseppe Biondi-Zoccai, MD, MSTAT
TBD Associate Professor, Sapienza University of Rome, Latina (Italy)
Berne Lecture – Luisa Iruela-Arispe, PhD
Understanding Vascular Growth Kinetics Stephen Walter Ranson Professor and Chair Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern, Chicago IL