8 January 2010

Postgrad student received award for cardiovascular research

A postgraduate student at the University of Dundee has received a prestigious award for his work on cardiovascular research.

Dr Maheshwar Pauriah (35), originally from Mauritius, received the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Presidential Trainee Award for a paper submitted for inclusion at the upcoming ASCPT Annual Meeting in Atlanta in March.

Dr Pauriah is studying for his Doctorate of Medicine at the University's Centre for Cardiovascular and Lung Biology of the Division of Medical Sciences. His work on the development of biomarkers for atherosclerosis was identified as being the most outstanding abstract submitted for the meeting by a clinical pharmacologist in training.

Atherosclerosis is commonly referred to as a hardening or furring of the arteries. It is caused by the formation of multiple plaques within the arteries.

Dr Pauriah works under Professor Chim Lang, who explained that biomarkers, measurable biological characteristics, may allow identification of patients most at risk of plaque rupture, or enable the monitoring of disease progression, and so assist the screening of possible drug candidates and clinical trial design.

'Improvements in biomarkers may then facilitate the advancement of clinical treatments of this disease which is the leading cause of premature death in the United Kingdom,' he said.

'The Centre has long been recognised as a centre of excellence in cardiovascular research. Each year, our research is presented in national and international meetings. '

This research combined a novel technique of harvesting endothelial cells from the forearm vein with plasma biomarkers and functional aspects of the endothelium, to generate new insights into biomarker development in atherosclerosis.

The work supported by an award from the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration - a consortium made up of the universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the four associated NHS Health Boards, Scottish Enterprise and Wyeth (now a part of Pfizer Inc).

This is the second year that the award has been granted to a trainee from the Dundee department. In 2007, the award went to Dr M AlZadjali, also working under the supervision of Professor Lang, for her work on insulin resistance and heart failure.

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