In 1999, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation approved funding for the establishment of a new clinical cardiovascular research center at one of the nation's great academic research universities, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center began operation in October of 1999 with an initial grant of $24 million that will support research activities over four years. The purpose of the Center is to develop new measures that reduce death and disability from atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD) and its major complications, especially left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and heart failure. Central themes include: gene-environment interactions in the pathobiology of ASHD and LVH; control of hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia; ethnic differences in risk for ASHD and LVH; the elucidation of pathways leading to cardiac hypertrophy, and the development of strategies to promote renewal of damaged myocardium.

The Center has three major components:

I. Scientific Projects at UT Southwestern Medical Center: The Reynolds Project is structured much like a Program Project and has four separate scientific projects that are each thematically distinct and spearheaded by one of the four Reynolds Investigators.

II. Education: A curriculum in translational and patient-oriented research. The educational mission is designed to prepare trainees for success in a rapidly changing research environment. The Center supports eight junior faculty members (Reynolds Associates), and four fellows (Reynolds Fellows).

In launching this program, the Foundation has the following goals:

• Contribute new knowledge that will speed progress towards finding a cure for atherosclerotic heart disease.
• Effectively translate knowledge gained in basic research into applications that will improve health and prevent cardiovascular diseases.
• Demonstrate new intellectual and organizational strategies for facilitating translational research, clinical trials, health services research, epidemiology and biostatistics in atherosclerotic heart disease.
• Strengthen programs for the recruitment, education and training of clinical investigators who will become leaders in translational research, clinical trials, health services research, epidemiology and biostatistics in atherosclerotic heart disease.
• Create innovative approaches for collaboration among scientists in various disciplines and at different institutions so that translational research, clinical trials, health services research, epidemiology and biostatistics in atherosclerotic heart disease can benefit human patients as quickly as possible.

This initiative seeks to facilitate interaction between investigators from a variety of scientific disciplines with a wide range of interests and skills. Each will be committed, however, to the development of translational research and clinical trials aimed at effective interventions for human patients. Some of the participants may have a strong laboratory focus with demonstrable interest in the application of laboratory science to human patients. Others may be largely conducting studies in human subjects involving various human populations. This may include clinical tests to determine the feasibility of large-scale clinical trials. In either case, moving research from the lab to the bedside is the fundamental goal of the Foundation and this new effort.

Recently Dr. Milton Packer became director of the  Center of Biostatistics and Clinical Science.  This Center  has launched a new program to identify individuals at UT Southwestern with exceptional aptitude towards scholarship and critical thinking; to train them to become the leaders of the next generation of clinical investigators; and to provide for them an effective path for career development and institutional recognition.Several Center for Human Nutrition Investigators, Dr. Scott M. Grundy, Dr. Gloria Lena Vega, Dr. Jonathan Cohen, and Dr. Abhimanyu Garg are heavily involved in the Reynolds Project. 

For more information about the Reynolds Cardiovascular Center and the Dallas Heart Study, visit the Reynolds Website