UI researchers from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology attended the Award American Heart Association’s American Society of Hypertension Joint Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA. 

The three-day program focused on recent advances in hypertension research.

Maternal Fetal Medicine fellow, Alexandria Betz, DO, received the AFHRE Travel Award from the Council on Hypertension. This award encourages physician scientists and clinician investigators to undertake or continue to mechanistic patient-oriented or clinical hypertension research. 

Working in the labs of Mark Santillan MD, PhD (Obstetrics and Gynecology) and Gary Pierce PhD (Health and Human Physiology), Dr. Betz's study entitled "First Trimester Elevation in Circulating Endothelin-1 and Arterial Stiffness are Predictive of Late Pregnancy Preeclampsia " investigated the association of first trimester Endothelin 1 and vascular dysfunction in the development of preeclampsia, a hypertension disorder of pregnancy.

Sabrina Scroggins, PhD, received the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Best Poster Award at the conference.

Dr. Scroggins, in the lab of Mark Santillan MD, PhD in conjunction with Justin Grobe PhD (Pharmacology), investigated the role of vasopressin in the immunologic causes of preeclampsia in her study entitled "Vasopressin Receptors Regulate Immune Responses in Preeclampsia".

Dr. Betz's work was supported by the American Heart Association's Strategically Focused Research Network Grant as an AHA SFRN fellow.  Dr. Scroggins' work was also supported by the AHA SFRN and her independent AHA postdoctoral fellowship award.