U.S.-Brazil Cooperative Research in Cardiac Gap Junction Biophysics
{'Code': '01090000', 'Directorate': {'LongName': 'Office Of The Director'}, 'Division': {'LongName': 'Office Of Internatl Science &Engineering'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Christine French'}
This award supports the participation of Dr. David C. Spray and others of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in a program of cooperative research with Dr. Antonio Campos de Carvalho of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in a project aimed at understanding the role of gap junctions in the heart ventricle in maintaining normal cardiac function. Gap junctions are a class of membrane channels that uniquely span the membranes of adjacent cells to form intercellular pathways for ions and uncharged molecules. The functional and biochemical properties of these junctions, and of the ions which they transmit, may be of profound importance in understanding how muscle impulses are transmitted within the heart. The U.S. principal investigator has participated in pioneering work on gap junctions between isolated pairs of ventricular myocytes, and has also studied the electrical behavior of adult rat ventricular myocytes and cell pairs. He has also studied the properties of junctional proteins in liver tissue, thereby becoming expert in techniques that he will extend, in this research, to the study of heart tissue. The Brazilian collaborator has considerable experience in the isolation of cardiac gap junctions, and also has experience in cardiac tissue electro-physiology. Complementary expertise will be utilized as U.S. investigators perform electrophysiological experiments in Brazil, on gap junctions isolated there; and in a subsequent visit by the Brazilian collaborators to the U.S., where they will participate in biochemical studies. By increasing our understanding of the operation and function of these important components of the heart, more will be learned about the maintenance of normal human cardiac function.
{'FirstName': 'David', 'LastName': 'Spray', 'EmailAddress': 'spray@aecom.nyu.edu', 'StartDate': '08/15/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Yeshiva University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine', 'CityName': 'Bronx', 'ZipCode': '104587809', 'PhoneNumber': None, 'StreetAddress': '500 West 185th Street', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'New York', 'StateCode': 'NY'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1986&All=true', 'xml': '8612496.xml'}