VCURES First MD-PhD Student Successfully Defends Thesis

Lane Smith successfully defended his PhD thesis on the topic: Oxygen Delivery to the Skeletal Muscle for the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat. Lane's outstanding work was based on the hypothesis that there are fundamental differences in microcirculatory oxygen transport between the normotensive and hypertensive host, which if characterized, could be crucial in our understanding of how to treat acute illness and injury in patients with a history of hypertension. Hypertension has been known to be an independent risk factor for increases morbidity and mortality after injury. Lane's work has demonstrated that there appear to be significant differences at both the central hemodynamic and microcirculatory level that may account for this increased risk.

Lane's work has or will be featured soon in several prominent journals including the Journal of Applied Physiology and Microcirculation. Lane is the first graduate student in a VCURES multidisciplinary graduate program aimed at producing basic and clinician-scientists with a focus on shock. Lane was co-sponsored and mentored by the Departments of Physiology and Emergency Medicine. Lane is currently completing his clinical requirements for his MD.

For more information on graduate or post-graduate laboratory or clinical research, please contact Dr. Wayne Barbee, VCURES Director of Graduate Medical Education at: rwbarbee@hsc.vcu.edu. Also see http://www.vcu.edu/vcures/education.htm.