Award Supports Hypertension Research
Tulane University has presented the first Oliver Fund Scholar Award to Dr. Hiroyuki Kobori, associate professor of physiology in the School of Medicine. An award of $44,000 will support Kobori's basic kidney research into high blood pressure.
Dr. Hiroyuki Kobori, associate professor of physiology in the School of Medicine, is the recipient of the inaugural Oliver Fund Scholar Award. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
This research, according to Kobori, may lead to the establishment of guidelines for selecting treatments for hypertensive patients and the development of a monitoring system that will follow patients during treatment.
"This project may hold the potential to achieve the greatest impact for individualized patient management of hypertension as well as cardiovascular and renal diseases," says Kobori.
"We have two main focuses," he says. "One is to develop a better understanding of the role of the renin-angiotensin system in the kidney, especially angiotensinogen (the sole substrate of the system), in the development of hypertension and kidney diseases. And two, which is an extension of the first, to demonstrate that the level of angiotensinogen in urine is a marker of activity of the renin-angiotensin system in the kidney."
Kobori's research supports the mission of the Tulane Hypertension and Renal Center of Excellence. Hypertension is one of Louisiana's and the southeast region's primary healthcare issues, is a major cardiovascular risk factor, and is closely linked to kidney disease. The center fosters interdisciplinary research in hypertension and related kidney and cardiovascular diseases, and is a major force in support of interdisciplinary research universitywide.
The Oliver Fund was created to support and enhance Tulane's faculty and intellectual capital, which are among the institution's most valuable resources. The fund is intended to stimulate outstanding faculty research initiatives, to sustain such projects and to increase their competitiveness for national research support. Competitions for Oliver Fund awards will be held twice yearly, each focused in a particular area of research strength in science and engineering at Tulane.
