WASHINGTON -- The American Heart Association’s Council for High Blood Pressure Research has selected Georgetown University Medical Center’s (GUMC) Christopher Wilcox, MD, PhD, to receive its most prestigious award -- the 2011 Excellence Award for Hypertension Research. Wilcox is the George E. Schreiner Professor of Nephrology and is director of the Center for Hypertension, Kidney & Vascular Research at GUMC.
This award honors excellence in research and discoveries in the field of hypertension as well as a researcher's contributions. The selection committee assesses the candidates' impact on their fields throughout their productive careers as well as any single discovery.
Hypertension is the major preventable cause of cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases. Wilcox’s research has demonstrated that these three common conditions share a disease trigger called oxidative stress, which is a malfunction of the way in which oxygen is used by cells. This leads to the production of damaging oxygen molecules. This concept informs and unifies the research strategy in the laboratory and the clinical and translational studies. New drugs are being investigated and tested as antioxidants to provide novel preventative or treatment strategies for these diseases.
Wilcox will receive the award, sponsored by Novartis, at the High Blood Pressure Research 2011 Scientific Sessions on Friday, September 23 in Orlando, Florida. Wilcox was the 2006 recipient of the Council’s Irvine Page – Alva Bradley Lifetime Achievement Award.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC’s mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. In fiscal year 2010-11, GUMC accounted for 85 percent of the university’s sponsored research funding.
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