Ithaca College

Jean Hardwick, Professor of Biology, was a awarded a 3 year research grant (~$365,000) from the National Institute of Health to support her research on the role of neuropeptides in the remodeling of the cardiac nervous system with heart disease.  Hardwick and her students are examining the changes induced by chronic heart disease in an animal model of myocardial infarction (or a heart attack) to determine how specific signaling molecules are changing and whether these changes are contributing to the pathology of the disease, or acting to improve cardiac function.  The NIH grant, which will begin later this summer, will allow the lab to purchase new equipment for sophisticated electrical recordings from neurons, as well as funding student research opportunities during the summers.