Cardiovascular Institute article

Since their inception in 1999, the division of Molecular Cardiology and the Cardiovascular Research Institute in Temple have generated some impressive numbers.
The institute, which is part of the Texas A&M College of Medicine, has received more than $11 million in outside grants from entities such as the National Institutes for Health and the American Heart Association. Scott and White Memorial Hospital also has given the institute more than $1 million in grants. More than 125 of the faculty's manuscripts have been published and cited more than 4,500 times. Faculty members also participate in 115  committees, 30 study sections and 30 editorial boards.
The only number the institute focuses on, however, is one.
One cure for heart disease.
"Cardiovascular disease and stroke kills or maims more Americans than all other diseases, including cancer and AIDS, combined," said Dr. Kenneth Baker, director of the Division of Molecular Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute.
"Cancer doesn't come anywhere close to heart disease in the number of deaths it causes."
The Cardiovascular Research Institute, a joint effort between the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, Scott and White and the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, is the umbrella under which each of the four research divisions, Molecular Cardiology, Vascular Biology, Molecular Medicine and Lymphatic Biology, are grouped.
The Molecular Cardiology division on the Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center campus, and Molecular Medicine division on the Scott and White main campus, are located in Temple, while the Vascular Biology and Lymphatic Biology divisions are in College Station.
Baker, who is the first holder of the Frank W. Mayborn Chair for Cardiovascular Research, said the four divisions are autonomous, and receive funding on their own accord, but reap the benefits of belonging to the same institute.
"(The institute) ties the researchers together academically," Baker said.
Most recently, the doctors in the Molecular Cardiology division have been working with a new class of drugs called renin-inhibitors. Baker said isolated tests of the renin-inhibitors produced promising results for the treatment of hypertension.
"The drug has been in the lab for the past two years, and we're hoping to get approval next year," Baker said. "This could have great impact nationwide."
Baker said the drug could be used for treating a patient with heart failure, lessening diabetes complications in some patients and reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
"There are direct and indirect consequences from the drug," Baker said. "We're also looking at the possible additional benefits."
The progress Baker and his staff have made has not gone unnoticed. Their research has been published in medical journals such as the Journal of Molecular Biology and American Journal of Cardiology, not to mention the fact that all the faculty in the Molecular Cardiology division have maintained an average citation rate of 15 per year.
Others, including Baker, have received the highly cited rating with more than 100 per year.
With so much progress, future expansion is inevitable. Baker said growth of the institute would depend on the amount of space available.
"We're tight on space at the Temple campus and increased expansion would be hampered by (those limitations)," Baker said.
"We'd like to add at least one more faculty position, but that is dependent on available space," he said.
All 10 labs on the third floor and four of the 10 labs on the second floor are complete. Baker said work will continue on the final six labs as funds are made available.