Our research endeavors are integrated across campus in a diverse set of collaborative relationships. In addition to outstanding individual investigator-driven research, a significant number of faculty participate in joint research projects with colleagues in other university departments and also with pharmacologists and toxicologists from industry and other universities.
Our department has a number of collaborative research groups.
The NIEHS EPA Superfund Group, a highly integrated, multidisciplinary research program investigating the environmental, microbial, and mammalian biomolecular responses to environmental contaminants that act as ligands for the aryl hydrocarbon receptor.
The NHLBI Program Project Group focuses on understanding venous function in the disease of hypertension. This group represents individuals from multiple departments and programs of MSU, and uses an integrative scientific approach to test scientific hypotheses that examine the role of venomotor tone in hypertension, its modulation by the hormone endothelin (ET-1), dependence on reactive oxygen species and the sympathetic nervous system. Our experimental approach includes gene array, genetic, biochemical, tissue and whole animal techniques, striving for a truly integrative approach.
The Respiratory Research Team is interested in understanding chronic respiratory disease mechanisms and responses to environmental insults, and developing subsequent prevention and cure strategies. Asthma has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 20 million people afflicted. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) afflicts approximately 15 million Americans and is projected to become the third leading cause of death by 2020.