Seeking Answers

While most health care professionals in the country focus on better treatments for ischemic heart disease, congestive heart disease, hypertension and cardiomyopathies, the Georgia Health Sciences University’s Cardiovascular Discovery Institute seeks answers that may unlock the root cause of those ailments and many others.

“The reality is that many people come to a hospital because of cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Gaston K. Kapuku, co-director of the Cardiovascular Discovery Institute and researcher at the school’s Georgia Prevention Institute.

“If all of the effort that has been put into curing the disease were put into prevention, I think we could put an end to the epidemic that is cardiovascular disease.”

He and co-director Dr. Stephen M. Black, a cell and molecular physiologist in the Georgia Health Sciences University's Vascular Biology Center, will lead what could be the school’s most diverse multidisciplinary team of basic scientists and clinicians as they investigate the mechanisms behind hypertension and other conditions that cause a host of health problems, such as diabetic retinopathy and coronary artery disease.

“We’re going to cast a wide net,” Dr. Black said. “We want to be all-inclusive, maybe even encouraging people who hadn’t even thought of working with cardiovascular disease.” The two sat down recently to talk about what will likely be the institute with the largest footprint at Georgia Health Sciences University.