Walsh University Earns First Federally Funded Research Grant

Jacqueline Novak, assistant professor of biology at Walsh University, recently earned the university’s first federally funded grant to continue her research in the health field.

Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the three-year grant, which totals more than $356,000, will be used to study the effects of the ovarian hormone relaxin in the treatment of post-menopausal coronary artery dysfunction in women.

According to Novak, women are at a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease post-menopause. During this stage in life, women’s production of relaxin also significantly decreases. Novak’s research focuses on the connection between the two.

“What we’re looking at is how women could be protected from cardiovascular disease,” she said. “Their risk goes up after menopause ... We are looking at relaxin’s potential for hormonal replacement therapy. Could we give relaxin to women and will it protect them (from the disease) after menopause?”

To conduct her research, Novak is collaborating with her husband, Rolando Ramirez, assistant professor of biology at the University of Akron. The two began their initial studies of relaxin while working together in Pittsburgh, where she conducted research at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

Together, they will conduct research on rats to determine relaxin’s impact on cardiovascular disease prevention.

“(This research) has a lot of great potential and hopefully it can help prevent heart disease in women,” Novak said. “Once you hit menopause, women’s risk goes up pretty fast. They don’t tend to have the same symptoms as men and are less likely to seek help because they ignore the symptoms. This has potential to help them.”

In addition to its possible benefits for women, Novak’s research also provides students with hands-on experience in the field. One of the grant’s requirements is that undergraduate students have the opportunity to conduct some of the research and collaborate with graduate students and the study’s research consultants — a team of senior investigators from several universities, including the University of Florida and the University of Mississippi.

“I’m a graduate of Walsh, and one of the things I really wanted to do is bring research opportunities to this university,” Novak said. “This grant gives students an amazing opportunity.”

One of the grant’s consultants, Kirk Conrad, professor of physiological and functional genomics at the University of Florida, shared Novak’s sentiments.

“The overall hypothesis is new and exciting, and the preliminary data is very supportive,” he said. “Perhaps, more importantly, whether the hypothesis proves to be true or not, these investigations will provide an outstanding vehicle in which to train undergraduate students in various research methodologies and in the process of scientific thinking.”