We will investigate the effect of obesity-related diabetes as a cause of this excessive morbidity and mortality. Obesity and diabetes are among risk factors for developing heart disease.
Obesity can lead to diabetes, which then compounds the problem of heart disease.
Bringing the specialties of cardiology and diabetes together offers us a unique pairing. The center will unite UT Southwestern researchers from the Frank M. Ryburn Jr. Cardiac Center, the Gifford Laboratories for Diabetes Research, the Center for Human Nutrition and the Mary Nell and Ralph B. Rogers Magnetic Resonance Center. It will consist of four research units and three core units. Victor will lead the only clinical portion of the study, examining whether obesity causes overactivity of the nervous system, leading to hypertension. As SCOR director and principal investigator, Dr. R. Sanders Williams, chief of cardiology and director of the Ryburn Center, will study how the gene that makes heat-shock proteins can provide protection from ischemic injury in nondiabetic and diabetic mice.