< Back Steven Arms David and Jan Blittersdorf Frank Bryan Mary Cushman David Marvin Raymond J. McNulty Lindsey Melander Miriam E. Nelson Germain Njila David Perez Andrew Siebengartner Bridget Thabault John Todd Mary C. Watzin Jody Williams		MARY CUSHMAN Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology, College of Medicine, Class of 1985, College of Arts and Sciences, Class of 1989, College of Medicine Mary Cushman earned her M.D. with every intention of treating breast cancer, but during a post-doc fellowship she fell in love with clinical research. Would she be interested, asked one of her mentors, in looking into blood clotting? “Most doctors find coagulation intimidating,” Dr. Cushman says, but she was game. Another mentor lured her to the school’s pathology lab in Colchester, and she was hooked.“ Our lab is one of the best in the world,” Dr. Cushman says proudly. “Everyone knows what we do.” School of Medicine researchers were instrumental in identifying CRP, a liver protein associated with inflammation, as a marker for heart disease. “Perhaps in ten years we’ll have a drug targeting inflammation that will become the next Lipitor,” says Dr. Cushman, referring to the widely used anti-cholesterol medication. Now Dr. Cushman has embarked on one of the most ambitious studies in molecular epidemiology ever undertaken. Strokes kill people at much higher rates in some southeastern states than elsewhere in America. Reasons for Ethnic and Geographic Difference in Stroke (REGARDS) will scrutinize blood samples from 30,000 people to try to discern why. Half the samples will be drawn from women and half from men, half from Caucasians and half from African Americans, and half from outside the southeast. Every person will be followed for four years to correlate the incidence of cardiovascular disease with the contents of participants’ blood. While the samples will initially be tested for CRP, lipids, glucose, and creatinine (reflecting kidney function), other researchers can test for whatever they want, Dr. Cushman explains--”even rhubarb levels!” REGARDS has the potential not only to create a lifetime of research but also, like much of the cutting-edge biomedical science that UVM and its medical school conduct, to extend and enhance the quality of our lives.