Perseverance Rewarded With First NIH Grant
Jan. 2008 CVC UPBEAT - Hiroto Miura, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular), appreciates the value of perseverance. After two rebuttals to obtain an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund his research, his efforts were finally rewarded in the third (and last possible) resubmission-cycle in the form of a $1.6 million grant from National, Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Dr. Miura works in the lab of David Harder, PhD, Professor of Physiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Center.
This grant, awarded to the Medical College of Wisconsin, will allow Dr. Miura, the principal investigator, to develop new strategies for the prevention of atherosclerosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that is characterized by the development of neointimal plaque, or hardening in the walls, of the arteries.
Although Dr. Miura has been the recipient of research grants from the American Heart Association and the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin program, obtaining his first R01 grant award is a milestone in the development of an independent research career. The R01 award supports a specific project performed by a named principal investigator in his or her area of specific interest and competency. The R01 is the original and historically the oldest grant mechanism used by the NIH to support health-related research and development.
Dr. Miura has faced a number of challenges over the past three to four years in his efforts to obtain NIH funding support. One is that his research takes a truly novel approach in the prevention of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis occurs when arterial plaque forms due to over- production of the smooth muscle cells of arteries and infiltration of blood cells that normally respond to inflammation or infection.
Dr. Miura hopes to find therapeutic targets that are activated commonly among these cell types in atherosclerosis, and to determine the effects of long-term treatment with blockers on the development of atherosclerosis. He believes these blockers will prove to be more effective than statins, like the medication Lipitor, which are typically used to reduce the cholesterol that forms plaque, because the blockers will provide direct or stronger treatment to prevent the formation of plaque.
The prevailing climate at the NIH, which has seen substantial budget decreases that have impacted the availability of funding, has presented an additional obstacle.
"The application and resubmission process has been very stressful," remarked Dr. Miura, who more than once considered giving up on his research and returning to his home in Akita, Japan, to practice clinical medicine. "But my co-investigators and colleagues from the Cardiovascular Center (CVC), like Drs. David Gutterman, David Harder, Meetha Medhora, Elizabeth Jacobs and Anna Brzezinska, have supported and encouraged me to persevere and never give up."
In Dr. Miura's thinking, "You can save millions of patients in the world through research."
"We are rejoicing with Dr. Miura in his recent achievement," said David Gutterman, MD, Senior Associate Dean for Research and Northwestern Mutual Professor of Cardiology. "His research bridges vascular physiology and pathophysiology to examine mechanisms of vasodilation and atherosclerosis. His work complements well other studies ongoing in the CVC, where his independent career was launched."
Dr. Miura, who earned his MD degree in 1991 at Akita University, Akita, Japan, and Dr. Gutterman share a mentoring relationship that began in 1995, when Dr. Miura served a postdoctoral cardiovascular fellowship under Dr. Gutterman at the University of Iowa.
After returning to Akita University to earn a PhD, in 1999, Dr. Miura accepted an Instructor appointment at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was promoted to the position of Assistant Professor in 2003.