The College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago received a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. The grant will fund a study of gender differences in how the heart uses and stores fat and how changes in fat metabolism play a role in heart disease.
Three universities and four hospitals in Ohio are participating in a major five-year, $10 million study funded by the March of Dimes to investigate the causes of premature birth. The participating universities are the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University, and Case Western Reserve University.
About 500,000 babies are born prematurely each year in the United States. The study will focus on five areas of research:
1. The evolution of human pregnancy.
2. The genetics of unique human populations.
3. The molecular developmental biology of pregnancy.
4. Progesterone signaling in pregnancy maintenance and preterm birth.
5. The sociobiology of racial disparities in preterm birth.