December 2009 Archives

University of Minnesota cardiologist Robert Wilson, M.D., has packed a lifetime of achievements into 24 years.

Since his 1986 arrival at the University, Wilson established the University’s interventional cardiology program, helped to create an interventional cardiology fellowship program, and invented medical devices that have led to 22 patents.

People with type 2 diabetes are significantly more likely to get heart disease than people who don't have diabetes. So Jennifer Hall, Ph.D., director of the program in translational cardiovascular genomics at the University of Minnesota, hopes that her research focused on identifying what predisposes a person to type 2 diabetes also may shed light on what factors lead to heart disease.

Hall and her team are using mouse models and human tissue to determine how one genetic mutation, known as TCF7L2, leads to impaired glucose tolerance and decreased insulin secretion and, ultimately, a greater likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.

Steve Bertossi and Larry Curtis are captains of different teams in their adult recreational hockey league, but last spring they joined up for a common cause.

Bertossi and Curtis didn't know each other well at the time. They had corresponded by e-mail to arrange scrimmages between their teams and had talked a few times in person. On one of those days, they got to talking about organizing a tournament.

"Larry said he has always wanted to do [a tournament] for charity," says Bertossi, who was immediately on board with Curtis’s plan.

When seemingly healthy, symptom-free patients come to the Rasmussen Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, they have one question: Am I at risk for a heart attack or stroke?

Since opening its doors in 2001, the Rasmussen Center has served more than 2,300 people who are concerned about their heart health.

**Red Hot Soiree to benefit the Lillehei Heart Institute** Saturday, April 30, 2011 The Depot, Minneapolis For more information, please contact Andrea Silverman at 612-625-2815

Your annual gifts to the Minnesota Medical Foundation at the University of Minnesota make a real difference for people suffering from heart and blood vessel diseases.

You can continue to make annual gifts after your lifetime as well by including the Minnesota Medical Foundation in your estate plans. The income generated from your endowed gift will allow you to continue to help advance world-class medical research, education, and care at the University.

The University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research houses some of the world's strongest magnets. Today those magnets are helping researchers develop novel ways to diagnose and monitor prostate cancer.

Pediatric neurologist Steven Rothman, M.D., is searching for a better way to stop difficult-to-control focal seizures.

Focal (or partial) epilepsy, which may account for up to 40 percent of seizures in children, is caused by "abnormally excitable" brain tissue in one specific area of the brain, says Rothman.

A part of the brain essential for memory called the hippocampus has long been known to "replay" recently experienced events. This replay previously was believed to be a simple process of reviewing recent experiences to help consolidate them into long-term memory.

The Medical Biosciences Building — a new home for 210 University of Minnesota researchers focused on Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, and the immune system— opened its doors December 1. The $79.3 million, 115,000-square-foot building is part of the University’s Biomedical Discovery District, the result of a $292 million funding program approved by the state of Minnesota in 2008.