UNT Health Science Center will
host its fourteenth annual Research Appreciation Day (RAD) on
Friday, April 7, 2006. RAD is an institutional tradition encompassing
medicine, public health and basic science. The program provides
an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to share their research
efforts with the campus community and the public. The program encourages
the development of joint research projects and increases the community's
awareness of the outstanding quality and range of research conducted
at UNT
Health Science Center.
Keynote Address High blood pressure: is it caused by vascular inflammation in the brainstem?
This year's keynote speaker, Julian
Paton, Ph.D. is an outstanding
researcher in the field of essential hypertension. He was awarded
with the Sharpey-Schafer Prize
in 1999 (University
College London, England), and the Carl
Ludwig Distinguished Prize in 2005 (joint IUPS-FASEB
meeting in San Diego). He currently holds a personal
Chair in Integrative
Physiology at the University of Bristol, England. His research
area is assessing changes in gene expression profiles within brainstem
samples from hypertensive animal models and human subjects with
essential hypertension. He employs viral vectors and in vivo somatic
gene transfer to assess the functional implications of differential
gene expression on cardiovascular homeostasis as well as neurophysiological
and dynamic confocal imaging techniques to probe central neuronal
circuitry controlling blood pressure. His work is funded mainly
by the British Heart Foundation and National Institute of Health.
Dr. Paton obtained his PhD at the University of London (UK; 1987),
then worked as a visiting scientist at E.I. du Pont de Nemours,
Wilmington, Delaware and as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at
the University of Göttingen, Germany. He is currently a professor
of integrative physiology at the Bristol Heart Institute, School
of Medical Sciences, University
of Bristol, Bristol,
England.
Poster and oral presentation competitions for students are a featured event of the day's program, as well as a poster competition for postdoctoral fellows and residents. A preference for either poster or oral competitions must accompany all student abstracts. A panel of judges will select the top presentations in each category. Prizes will be awarded to the winners at an award ceremony.