Dr. Schwartz's overall responsibility as Principal Investigator of this training program includes advertising, recruiting fellows, recruiting new faculty, and notifying and advising the Steering Committee.  The CVP Steering Committee makes all final decisions affecting the program.

Deborah A. Nickerson, PhD is Associate Professor of Genome Sciences.   Dr. Nickerson’s laboratory has developed several new technologies to identify and type the most common form of DNA variation in the human genome: single nucleotide substitutions also know as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).  Current efforts are focused on three areas.  First, new software tools are being developed to find DNA sequence variations.  Second, new formats for automated DNA typing are being developed, focused primarily on the oligonucleotide ligation assay (OLA).  A number of approaches to multiplex ligation assays using fluorescence-based detection and readout on oligonucleotide arrays are being developed.  Dr. Nickerson’s group is also involved in the use of large panels of SNP markers to map complex traits in the human genome by virtue of linkage disequilibrium or statistical association between these markers and etiologically relevant sites in a gene or on a chromosome.  As director of the Seattle SNP PGA, Dr. Nickerson interacts with several of our faculty involved in the vascular biology of inflammation.

Daniel Bowen-Pope is Professor of Pathology and director of the Pathology graduate program.  His early work with Russell Ross defined the multiple receptors for PDGF.  The Bowen-Pope laboratory has continued to follow this thread receptor to define the role using knockout and chimeric mice for the PDGF  of receptor-negative cells in development and response to disease.  Together with Dr. Schwartz, Dr. Bowen-Pope recently defined the release of growth factors by smooth muscle cells undergoing apoptosis, a new inflammatory pathway.  This critical paper proved, for the first time, that cell death by a defined apoptotic pathway can elicit a response in neighboring cells, including inflammation and repair.  Finally, Dr. Bowen-Pope represents the Department of Pathology in his capacity as Director of that department’s graduate program.

Joseph Beavo is a Professor of Pharmacology.  Of note, Dr. Beavo is one of the faculty on our training grant (the others are Drs. Catterall, Glomset, and Davie) who are members of the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Beavo was elected for work on the roles of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases in controlling the duration and amplitude of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP signals.  He found that different isozymes of phosphodiesterase present in tissues permit drugs and hormones to differentially regulate individual isozymes within this group.  Recent work has focused on the realization that different phosphodiesterases regulate cyclic nucleotide levels.  This has increased interest in finding selective inhibitors for each isozyme.  A number of isozyme-selective phosphodiesterase inhibitors are now beginning to be evaluated clinically for treatment of such diverse diseases as hypertension, congestive heart failure, impotence, and inflammation.  Interest in vascular effects has led to collaborations on smooth muscle biology involving Drs. Bornfeldt, Schwartz, and Beavo of CVP.  As a representative of Pharmacology, Dr. Beavo serves a critical role on the committee since many of our fellows are in this department.  He has been especially helpful in encouraging Pharmacology students to participate in Breakfast Club and other CVP activities.

Gary H. Gibbons is Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Morehouse Cardiovascular Research Institute.  He is best known for his work on vascular remodeling in hypertension.  This includes key studies on the pathways leading from activation of the angiotensin and other trophic receptors to protein synthesis.  Along with Dr. Schwartz, he has been using expression arrays to study changes in arterial function.  Dr. Gibbons represents the tie to Morehouse Medical School as well as adding research expertise in cardiology and vascular biology.  Dr. Gibbons participates in the Breakfast Club and in the courses as described above.