Cardiac electrophysiologist Nicole Habel, M.D., Ph.D., and social and molecular epidemiologist Debora Kamin Mukaz, Ph.D., M.S., both assistant professors of medicine at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine, each received an Esther & Morton Wohlgemuth Cardiology Research Fellowship from the Larner Department of Medicine. This award provides early-career faculty with $40,000 to support research projects focused on the causes, mechanisms, epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease.
Dr. Habel’s pilot study seeks to understand the mechanisms involved in blood flow to the heart muscle among patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Sometimes called diastolic heart failure, HFpEF is a type of heart failure where the heart’s left ventricle pumps normally but can’t relax and fill with enough blood effectively, causing fluid backup, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Findings from Habel’s project are expected to lay the foundation for a larger-scale investigation of heart blood flow changes, enhance Habel’s ability to form cross-disciplinary research teams, and inform strategies for hypothesis-driven bedside-to-bench research.
Dr. Kamin Mukaz’s pilot study, titled “Community Resilience: Cardiovascular Health and Cardiovascular Disease,” aims to assess associations of community resilience with cardiovascular health and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke among participants in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort study. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), REGARDS has followed 30,239 Black and white adults since 2003 to investigate racial and regional disparities in stroke and cognitive impairment. Findings of Kamin Mukaz’s project will be published and provide foundational data for grant applications.
“The Wohlgemuth Fellowship, powered by philanthropy, helps our department support the next generation of scientific leaders,” says Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., University Distinguished Professor of Medicine and vice chair for emerging researchers of the Larner Department of Medicine. “We’re proud to champion these two investigators at this pivotal stage of their careers.”
Both Habel and Kamin Mukaz are pipeline investigators for the Vermont Center for Cardiovascular and Brain Health, an NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence that provides a platform to build sustainable research programs based on the exceptional potential of early career faculty.
The Wohlgemuth Cardiology Research Fellowship, supported by an endowed philanthropic fund within the Department of Medicine, provides funds for milestone-driven cardiology research that will enhance the awardee’s competitiveness for future extramural funding proposals and research productivity.
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.
