We combine research in biology, biochemistry, and clinical cardiovascular medicine to investigate responses to oxygen deprivation across the animal kingdom. Our goal is to develop comparative approaches to medicine and identify new interventions for strokes and heart attacks.

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scale of the problem

Stroke and heart attack are among the leading causes of death in the United States.

Each year 795,000 Americans have strokes and over 735,000 Americans have heart attacks. Together, heart disease and stroke account for nearly 21% of all fatalities in our country and cost the American economy nearly $1,000,000,000 per day [1].

370,000

number of americans that die from heart attacks each year

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140,000

number of americans that die from strokes each year

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$1 million

estimated cost spent per day treating heart disease and strokes in america

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taking a comparative approach

Evolution has produced huge variation in animal responses to oxygen deprivation, both within human populations and across different species. For example, babies and children can tolerate longer periods of oxygen deprivation without injury than can adults [2], while a host of fish, frog, and turtle species can tolerate minutes — even hours! — of complete oxygen deprivation without injury to their brain or heart [3].

Our investigators work collectively to mine the natural variation in physiological responses to oxygen deprivation and identify novel molecules that can reduce or reverse tissue damage in humans.

let’s work together!

We are actively recruiting SLU researchers to join our team! We use comparative approaches at multiple levels of biological organization to identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions in the treatment of stroke and heart attack. Does this sound like something you would be interested in? There are lots of ways to get involved in our work!

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