Dr. Kamal Rahmouni, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Dr. Gary Pierce, Assistant Professor of Health and Human Physiology was recently awarded a pilot project from the UI Center for Hypertension Research for their project entitled “Mechanisms of Vascular Endothelial Dysfunction and Aortic Stiffness in Obesity”.  The project is focused on understanding the biological events that are important for the function of the vessels and clarify the processes that underlie vascular abnormalities in obesity. Obesity is commonly associated with defects in the function of the vessels that irrigate the body’s tissues which promotes cardiovascular diseases, but the processes involved are not well defined. The more Drs. Rahmouni and Pierce know about how the vascular function is regulated, the more likely they can understand the vascular defects that lead to cardiovascular disease and improve treatments.