Translational Research: The Eugene Feiner Laboratory for Vascular Artherosclerosis and Thrombosis
Jefferson’s Center for Vascular Diseases actively contributes to and benefits from work performed in the Eugene Feiner Laboratory
for Vascular Biology and Thrombosis, part of Jefferson’s Program for Translational Medicine. We work closely with Director
Andrea Eckhart, PhD, as she and her team work to translate cutting-edge research into top-quality patient care.
Much of the research in the Feiner Laboratory is in the area of hypertension. The team is exploring how receptors – the proteins
that help to establish blood pressure by binding hormones, including epinephrine – change their signaling vascular smooth
muscle under disease conditions.
Antihypertensive therapeutic strategies are currently inadequate to decrease high blood pressure in a significant proportion
of patients with this disease. Thus, researchers at the Feiner Lab have developed a method to decrease blood pressure using
a novel inhibitor of certain receptor pathways important in causing vasoconstriction. This method is currently being studied
in animal models of the disease, but researchers intend that strategies such as this may be advanced to clinical trials –
making it possible to develop new antihypertensive drugs and methods of treatment for the disease.
Researchers in the Feiner Lab consult regularly with Internal Medicine and Cardiology to explore possibilities to directly
incorporate clinical observations into novel uses of research.
