For decades, University Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pharmacology Mark Nelson, Ph.D., at the Larner College of Medicine has studied the way the human body uses calcium to affect blood flow, a body of research recognized with a prestigious membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Most recently a team Nelson led uncovered a novel mechanism that reshapes our understanding of how blood flow is regulated in the brain. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a high-impact, peer-reviewed NAS journal, introduces electro-calcium (E-Ca) coupling, a process that integrates electrical and calcium signaling in brain capillaries to ensure precise blood flow delivery to active neurons.

Nelson was recently selected to serve a two-year term on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The advisory committee advises on matters related to planning, execution, conduct, support, and evaluation of biomedical research, medical science, and biomedical communications; makes recommendations concerning program development, resource allocation, NIH administrative regulation and policy, and other specific or general aspects of NIH policy; and reviews and makes recommendations on applications for grants and cooperative agreements for research and training for projects that show promise of making valuable contributions to human knowledge.

Read more about Dr. Nelson’s brain blood flow research

Research like this has contributed to the University of Vermont’s designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an R1 institution, placing it in the top tier of research universities in the U.S.