Interdisciplinary Mentoring and Research in Womens Cardiovascular Health

心血管疾病（CVD）是女性死亡的主要原因。研究人员和临床医生 需要能够跨学科界限开展工作，以有效地理解、预防和减轻负担 CVD。鉴于女性和 CVD 存在多种特定性别的危险因素，关注女性和 CVD 至关重要 CVD 的表现仍不完全清楚。此 NHLBI 职业生涯中期续签申请 以患者为导向的研究研究者奖寻求对 Rebecca Thurston 博士的支持，她是一名 在中年女性心血管领域的跨学科指导、培训和研究方面拥有良好的记录 健康。该项目的具体目标是为瑟斯顿博士提供培训、资源和受保护的 是时候通过以下方式加强和扩大她的 NIH 支持的研究计划对公共卫生的影响：(1) 为来自不同领域的年轻研究人员提供出色的指导和支持来解决问题 对女性心血管健康至关重要； (2) 支持瑟斯顿博士和她的培训 学员接受 (a) 高级分析调解方法和 (b) 选择生理机制（炎症、 表观遗传学）与女性 CVD 的发生高度相关； (3) 利用正在进行的 NIH RF1- 支持的研究，并以 K24 支持的研究的第一阶段为基础，该研究证明了关键 更年期症状（睡眠问题、血管舒缩症状）与颈动脉的横截面关系 动脉粥样硬化中年女性的关系不能用传统的 CVD 危险因素或性激素来解释。我们 现在将 (a) 研究更年期症状随时间的持续存在与颈动脉粥样硬化的关系 及其进展，并且（b）考虑可能的关键新机制（炎症、表观遗传）途径 女性更年期症状与心血管疾病风险密切相关。建议的指导和职业发展 各项活动高度整合，具有促进受训者职业发展和加强培训等相辅相成的目标 瑟斯顿博士正在开展有关女性心血管健康的研究和培训项目。

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among women. Researchers and clinicians that can work across disciplinary boundaries are needed to effectively understand, prevent, and reduce the burden of CVD. A focus on women and CVD is critical given the multiple sex-specific risk factors for and manifestations of CVD that remain incompletely understood. This renewal application for an NHLBI Mid-Career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research seeks support for Dr. Rebecca Thurston, an investigator with a strong track record in interdisciplinary mentoring, training, and research in midlife women's cardiovascular health. The specific aims of this Project are to provide Dr. Thurston with the training, resources, and protected time to strengthen and amplify the public health impact of her NIH-supported research program by: (1) providing outstanding mentorship and support for young investigators from diverse fields to address questions of critical importance to women's cardiovascular health; (2) supporting training for Dr. Thurston and her trainees in (a) advanced analytic mediation methods and (b) select physiologic mechanisms (inflammation, epigenetics) highly relevant to the development of CVD in women; and (3) to leverage ongoing NIH RF1- supported research and to build upon the first phase of K24-supported research that demonstrated critical cross-sectional relations of menopausal symptoms (sleep problems, vasomotor symptoms) to carotid atherosclerosis midlife women, relations not explained by traditional CVD risk factors or by sex hormones. We will now (a) investigate how persistence of menopausal symptoms over time relate to carotid atherosclerosis and its progression and (b) consider key novel mechanistic (inflammatory, epigenetic) pathways that may critically link menopausal symptoms to CVD risk in women. Proposed mentoring and career development activities are highly integrated, with the mutually reinforcing goals of advancing trainee careers and enhancing Dr. Thurston's burgeoning program of research and training in women's cardiovascular health.