Dr. Cipolla is the first researcher from the Larner College of Medicine and the University of Vermont to receive this national honor.
Cipolla also holds joint appointments in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences and in pharmacology at the Larner College of Medicine and serves as professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Biomedical Engineering in UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
The Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award is a highly competitive, seven-year research grant given to scientists who have demonstrated exceptional scientific excellence and productivity in neurological research supported by NINDS. According to NINDS, the Javits Award is given to scientists for their superior competence and outstanding productivity and provides long-term support to investigators with a history of exceptional talent, imagination, and preeminent scientific achievement. Recipients must have made substantial, cutting-edge contributions to neuroscience or neurology and have a record of conducting rigorous, transparent research. Awards are selected based on the highest scientific merit and a strong likelihood of advancing their field.
The award, totaling up to $4.7 million, will support Cipolla’s research on how blood flow is controlled in the brain and how conditions such as high blood pressure damage the brain’s blood vessels. These changes can disrupt normal brain function and increase the risk of serious neurological conditions, including stroke, seizures, and cognitive impairment.
“I am truly honored to be given such a prestigious award by the NINDS. I think it not only highlights the work in our lab but also speaks highly of UVM and all we have here.” — Marilyn J. Cipolla, Ph.D.’97
A major focus of Cipolla’s work for more than two decades has been preeclampsia, a dangerous hypertensive disorder of pregnancy that can cause stroke and seizures during pregnancy and increase the risk of early cognitive decline later in life. Research in the Cipolla lab has identified specific ways preeclampsia alters the tiny blood vessels in the brain, helping to explain how these neurological complications develop. Her work has focused on circulating inflammatory factors produced during preeclampsia that interact with small blood vessels in the brain causing them to degrade and bleed. This condition, known as intracerebral hemorrhage, is extremely dangerous and often leads to death or severe neurological impairment. In less severe cases of preeclampsia, these same factors may irreversibly affect the brain’s network of neurons and cause cognitive decline later in life. Cipolla serves as the primary investigator for this research, working with co-investigators David Bernstein, Ph.D., of UVM’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, and Dimitry Krementsov, Ph.D.’09, of UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
“The Javits award will allow our team to expand our work on hemorrhagic stroke in severe preeclampsia and cognitive decline later in life in women with a history of preeclampsia,” Cipolla said. “We are also combining laboratory measurements with machine learning approaches to better predict these outcomes, with the ultimate goal of prevention and improved treatment.”
Since the inception of the Javits Investigator Awards in fiscal year 1984, more than 600 awards have been given. Cipolla is the first Larner College of Medicine and UVM recipient since the award was established. Peter Calabresi, M.D., chair of the Department of Neurological Sciences at Larner, also received the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award while at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Researchers do not apply for a Javits Award; NINDS staff and the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council nominate outstanding grant applications for consideration.
“I am truly honored to be given such a prestigious award by the NINDS,” Cipolla said. “I think it not only highlights the work in our lab but also speaks highly of UVM and all we have here. It is also important to know that none of us do this alone. I have been privileged to have many great students, postdocs, technicians, collaborators, and colleagues that have contributed to our success over the years.”
Cipolla began her academic career at UVM, earning a bachelor of science in electrical engineering in 1988. She has been a member of the Larner College of Medicine for more than 20 years, earning her M.S. and Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology before becoming a professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences.
She has published extensively, received numerous honors in her field, and been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In 2015, she was named a UVM University Scholar and in 2020 she received the Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award from the Larner College of Medicine Alumni Association. In 2021, Cipolla was named the Thomas Willis Lecture Award winner for her exceptional contributions to stroke research. This prestigious award, which started in 1986, recognizes top contributions to basic science in stroke research, and is presented annually at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference.
Mandated by an act of Congress in 1983, the Javits awards were established to honor the late Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY), who for several years was a victim of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Senator Javits was a leading advocate for federal support of research on disorders of the brain and nervous system.