Stephen Y. Chan, professor of medicine and director of the Vascular Medicine Institute, will lead a University of Pittsburgh and Prairie View (Texas) A&M University research team as part of a $15 million award from the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Strategically Focused Research Network on Inflammation in Cardiac and Neurovascular Disease.
Pitt joins with teams from Northwestern University Chicago Campus and the University of Michigan on the ambitious project to better understand the body’s response to inflammation and crosstalk between the heart and brain, as well as how to prevent or treat inflammation-driven cardiovascular diseases.
Directed by Center PI Dr. Stephen Chan, the Pitt AHA SFRN team will conduct three different projects, led by Drs. Partha Dutta, Anne Newman, and Toren Finkel, aimed at identifying and treating interrelated conditions of the brain and vascular pathology. They’ll also study cellular mechanisms that impact memory in hopes of developing new medications to boost brain function for people who have experienced a heart attack.