Advancing Basic Science

The Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine was not the only beneficiary of the Eccles Foundations’ generosity.

Of the gift, $40 million was earmarked for research, focused on cardiovascular science and heart disease. At the U, the primary beneficiary of that support will be the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI). The institute delivers cutting-edge cell-to-bedside research and education in cardiovascular disease, with a focus on basic fundamental science—the kind championed by the late Nora Eccles.

The Eccles Foundations’ support will ensure a new wing for the CVRTI, comprising 12,000 gross square feet of primarily new wet lab space and a freezer farm for specimen collection. Plans call for researchers to move into the new space in early 2023.

Through the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation (NETF), the Eccles family has strongly supported the institute during its 52-year existence. UtahMed sat down with institute director Dr. Robin Shaw to talk about the family and the future of the institute.

What has the Eccles family’s support meant to the CVRTI?

Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation support is the lifeblood of the CVRTI.  Half of its annual support is directed to operations, which pays the salaries of all of our administrative and technical staff as well as operational costs. The other half is administered as research grants to fund individual CVRTI investigator programs. NETF support allows our investigators to engage in high-risk, high-reward research.

What kind of investigators is the CVRTI looking to bring onboard?

Right now we’re going for the best athletes, so to speak. The power of basic research is that, when successful, it provides benefits in unexpected areas. We therefore prioritize investigator quality over a particular research direction.

What exciting research is taking place at the CVRTI today?

Many investigators at the CVRTI have turned their attention to the growing problem of heart failure, which affects 6 million Americans. Heart failure-related hospitalization is the single biggest charge to Medicare, thus consuming a significant share of our country’s healthcare budget. CVRTI investigator Dr. Stavros Drakos is the country’s foremost expert on recovering failing heart muscle. My group and others at the CVRTI have identified fundamental mechanisms that explain why heart muscle cells progressively fail after bad events such as infection or heart attacks. This knowledge has now led to a novel gene therapy for heart failure that is showing great promise in preclinical testing.  We expect to be approaching the FDA for a clinical trial in the near future.

What is the state of heart health in the United States?

The number of patients with failing hearts is beginning to reach epidemic proportions. The drugs that are out there for treating heart failure have been around for many decades. And they actually don’t directly benefit the heart by design; they prevent systemic stress responses to heart failure. In cancer and in inflammatory and infectious disease, we do all kinds of molecular diagnostics and targeted therapies. We don’t do that in heart failure, because we don’t actually have a good enough molecular understanding of the basic biology of failing heart muscle. CVRTI investigators are working to make up this knowledge gap.

And in Utah?

Overall, in the United States and In Utah, heart disease is the top cause of death. Interestingly, in the United States in general and in Utah, there is a decrease in incidence of coronary artery disease and heart attacks and increased survival of such heart attacks. However, for some of these very same reasons, there is an increase in heart failure in Utah. The lifetime risk of developing heart failure varies by study from one in five to one in two. So for Utah, heart failure is a problem that must be addressed.

Generosity Comes Full Circle.

How does the CVRTI fit into the big picture of U of U Health?

In a sense, we are a nerve center supporting and nucleating new cardiovascular research and education throughout the campus. Presently, our investigators are drawn from three colleges and five departments, from biomedical engineering on the main campus, to pharmacology and toxicology in the College of Pharmacy, to internal medicine, surgery, and pediatrics in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.

Our mission is best achieved when we partner not just with academic departments, but critical research centers as well. Recent recruits have been jointly supported by the Senior Vice President of Health Sciences office, the University of Utah Molecular Medicine Program, and also the Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center. This degree of collaboration across campus enhances our community and makes the University of Utah a highly integrated and really special place to work. 

• Rich Polikoff