# Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Research in Womens Cardiovascular Health

> **NIH NIH K24** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $111,577

## Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among women. Researchers and clinicians that
can work across disciplinary boundaries are needed to effectively understand, prevent, and reduce the burden
of CVD. A focus on women and CVD is critical given the multiple sex-specific risk factors for and
manifestations of CVD that remain incompletely understood. This renewal application for an NHLBI Mid-Career
Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research seeks support for Dr. Rebecca Thurston, an investigator with
a strong track record in interdisciplinary mentoring, training, and research in midlife women's cardiovascular
health. The specific aims of this Project are to provide Dr. Thurston with the training, resources, and protected
time to strengthen and amplify the public health impact of her NIH-supported research program by: (1)
providing outstanding mentorship and support for young investigators from diverse fields to address questions
of critical importance to women's cardiovascular health; (2) supporting training for Dr. Thurston and her
trainees in (a) advanced analytic mediation methods and (b) select physiologic mechanisms (inflammation,
epigenetics) highly relevant to the development of CVD in women; and (3) to leverage ongoing NIH RF1-
supported research and to build upon the first phase of K24-supported research that demonstrated critical
cross-sectional relations of menopausal symptoms (sleep problems, vasomotor symptoms) to carotid
atherosclerosis midlife women, relations not explained by traditional CVD risk factors or by sex hormones. We
will now (a) investigate how persistence of menopausal symptoms over time relate to carotid atherosclerosis
and its progression and (b) consider key novel mechanistic (inflammatory, epigenetic) pathways that may
critically link menopausal symptoms to CVD risk in women. Proposed mentoring and career development
activities are highly integrated, with the mutually reinforcing goals of advancing trainee careers and enhancing
Dr. Thurston's burgeoning program of research and training in women's cardiovascular health.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9850986
- **Project number:** 5K24HL123565-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** REBECCA C THURSTON
- **Activity code:** K24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $111,577
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-08-15 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9850986

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9850986, Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Research in Womens Cardiovascular Health (5K24HL123565-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9850986. Licensed CC0.

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