2CI/Next Gen Researcher Gets $2.4 Million Grant To Study Diabetic Vascular Diseases
2CI/Next Gen Researcher Gets $2.4 Million Grant To Study Diabetic Vascular Diseases
Dr. Ming-Hui Zou, director of the Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine at Georgia State University, has received a four-year, $2.4 million federal grant to study cardiovascular complications in diabetes.
The grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health allows Zou to continue his research, which has been funded since 2004. He is a strategic hire under the Second Century Initiative and Next Generation Program.
The study will investigate how high glucose promotes dysfunction of mitochondria, the cell structures that produce the energy cells need to survive. It will also explore how mitochondrial fission, or division into two or more independent structures, results in atherosclerosis, the buildup of fats, cholesterol and other substances in and on the artery walls, and dysfunction of endothelial cells, which line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels.