What funding means to the Cardiovascular Center
Investigators in the Cardiovascular Center have been able to generate more than $30 million in direct and indirect National Institutes of Health funding.
However, the Medical College of Wisconsin is a private, non-profit institution and support from the community is needed to support faculty development, program development, and core resources. The estimated economic cost of cardiovascular disease throughout the nation exceeds $260 billion.
Donations from individuals, corporations and foundations help support these educational programs:
- Visiting Professor Series: Andrey Sorokin, PhD, associate professor of medicine, is the director of the Visiting Professor Series. The purpose of this program is to bring in recognized scientists in specific areas related to program initiatives at the Cardiovascular Center. They discuss research protocols and ideas with faculty. Seminars conducted by visiting professors stimulate relevant discussion and serve as a mechanism through which Center programs are advertised. This word-of-mouth advertisement is probably the most effective in recruiting new post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty.
- Work-in-Progress Presentations: The presentations are directed by Kirkwood Pritchard, PhD, associate professor of surgery, and Ganesh Konduri, MD, associate professor of pediatrics. Work-in-Progress presentations are given twice a month for Cardiovascular Center investigators to discuss their current research projects and receive feedback. At selected intervals, the organizers of the series invite outside speakers to facilitate interaction relevant to cardiovascular disease issues being discussed.
Cardiovascular Center funding has been used to recruit Randy Stephen Sprague, MD, professor of pharmacological and physiological science, who will further the goal of the Center of developing lab research that translates into immediate patient care.
In the past year, philanthropic funding of the Cardiovascular Center has helped recruit these new faculty members:
The Cardiovascular Center also has a National NIH Training Grant to train PhD post-doctoral fellows and clinician scientists. Currently, the majority of Fellowship research training in cardiovascular disease is done within the Cardiovascular Center.
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Future funding support is needed for the following areas:
Equipment
- A large Confocal Microscope ($400,000). This device examines living tissue at submicron levels to identify molecules within living cells. This technology allows researchers to make significant discoveries as to where molecules are located within cells.
- An LC Mass Spectrometer ($200,000). This is a tool for the analysis and sorting of cells. A new flow cytometer would positively impact the immediate needs of several National Institutes of Health-funded investigators and multiple departments on campus. The cytometer's automated cell sorting capabilities will take the place of manual, multi-step cell sorting which will allow for new and expanded research in the field of genetics.
- A Fluoroscope ($90,000). This is a device equipped with a fluorescent screen on which the internal structure of an optically opaque object, such as the human body, may be continuously viewed as shadowy images formed by the differential transmission of x-rays through the object.
- The Phospho Imager ($70,000) uses phosphor screens instead of film to capture quantitative data from radioactive gels and blots. This equipment is used to analyze RNA, DNA and proteins.
Cutting-edge equipment is essential for investigators to advance cardiovascular research that may lead to novel drugs and therapies for people suffering from cardiovascular disease.
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Endowed Chairs
We are seeking $1.5 million for endowed chairs for each co-director of the Cardiovascular Center and for pulmonary research.
An endowed professorship or chair is the most significant form of recognition that the Medical College of Wisconsin can grant one of its scientists or physicians. Endowed professorships are extremely important to enhancing patient care. They either support the recruitment of a top quality candidate to the Medical College or are used by an existing faculty member to fund research for the benefit of patients.
An endowed chair in pulmonary research would be instrumental in attracting a top quality candidate to the Medical College. Endowed professorships allow the Medical College of Wisconsin to recruit competitively for the best candidate in a specific field.
The other option is that a donor, in consultation with the Medical College of Wisconsin, might identify a current faculty member from the Cardiovascular Center who would benefit from an endowed chair in pulmonary research. Interest generated by the endowment is used at the faculty member's discretion to enhance the productivity of a research lab.
Support might be used to hire or train lab assistants, buy lab supplies or equipment, or provide start-up funds for key projects. Ultimately, these funds will advance patient care as new treatments are tested in the labs and brought to clinical trial over time.
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Endowed professorships are key
- They allow the Medical College of Wisconsin to recruit and retain top quality faculty members.
- They provide a stable source of funding in an environment of changing funding patterns, creating sustainable programs.
- They provide ongoing recognition to the donor through the cumulative contributions of the chair holders.
The endowed professorship offers daily recognition, in that the donor's name is listed on the faculty member's stationery, as well as in appropriate Medical College of Wisconsin publications, peer-reviewed research publication and press releases.
Cardiovascular Center Fellows
We are seeking two cardiology/pulmonary international fellows.
Post-doctoral fellowships ($80,000 each) for the Cardiovascular Center would fund salaries for physicians and scientists who are beginning a research career. Fellowships are awarded competitively, meaning MD and PhD graduates are selected on the basis of merit to work in the laboratories of experienced faculty.
Fellows have a leading role in the development of research and are, therefore, essential in our efforts to cure disease. Due to the increasing demands of managed care, faculty physicians have limited time for research. In addition, both physicians and scientists have faculty appointments that further limit their time for research.
As a result, the role of faculty in patient research is frequently limited to thesis and methodology and providing supervision to fellows. It is often the case that fellows — who devote all of their time to research — advance promising new treatments and potential cures.
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Two additional benefits that result from fellowships
- In the early stages of their research careers, scientists and physicians are more aggressive and willing to push the boundaries of science.
- The energy of these scholars will not only drive their own research but also infuse enthusiasm into the research of senior faculty.
As members of faculty research teams, fellows have an important "multiplier effect" on the value of research. By working on both the basic and clinical research aspects of their respective specialties, fellows expedite the transfer of knowledge from the laboratory to the patient's bedside.
Fellowships, which allow post-doctoral researchers to pursue innovative scientific research, are typically awarded for two years.
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