Yunmeng Liu, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has received a $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Liu’s laboratory will investigate how metabolic abnormalities of immune cells during diabetes contribute to the development of high blood pressure and damage the heart and kidneys. She plans to understand why diabetes promotes cardiovascular disease and renal injury, which often occur as co-morbidities in diabetic patients.
The long-term goal of her project is to identify innovative therapeutic strategies that target immune-metabolic pathways to prevent or treat both diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The five-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases, which is part of the NIH, provides about $3.6 million in total funding to support Liu’s innovative research program. She called it “a significant milestone for our lab.”
Steven Webber, MD, dean of the UAMS College of Medicine, said Liu’s funding proposal, entitled “Metabolic Rewiring of T Cells Bridges Diabetes to Hypertension,” received an exceptional impact score that “reflects the scientific rigor, originality, and translational significance of her work, and signals her growing national recognition as an independent investigator in the field of cardiometabolic immunity.”