Lisa Jennings, PhD, of UTHSC Awarded $27,000 from American Heart Association
Memphis, Tenn. (May 7, 2013) – Getting through medical school or training as a research scientist takes a serious monetary toll. An award to Lisa K.
Jennings, PhD, is designed to ease that financial burden and spur students to pursue careers related to cardiovascular disease and stroke. Through its
Greater Southeast Health Sciences Fellowship Program, the American Heart Association (AHA) has awarded $27,000 to Dr. Jennings, who serves as a professor
in three departments at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) — Internal Medicine; Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry; and
Surgery. Over the next two years, she will use the award to fund fellowships for up to three students each year.
The objective of the student fellowship program is to provide opportunities for health science students to work for 10 consecutive weeks with a faculty or
staff member on any project related to the mission of the AHA. The goal is to encourage students to consider a future academic career in this area. To be
eligible for the award, pre-doctoral students must have a strong science focus with research interests broadly related to cardiovascular function and
disease, and to stroke, or related to clinical or basic science, bioengineering or biotechnology, and public health problems.
Dr. Jennings, who also directs the TN-AR-MS Cardiovascular Clinical Research Consortium at UTHSC, will select student fellows with potential to excel in
the designated research areas. “This award is an excellent opportunity for health science students to participate in cutting-edge research that focuses on
understanding the biologic mechanisms of diseases that affect almost every household in the state of Tennessee,” said Dr. Jennings. “The mission of
vascular biology at UTHSC is to identify new targets that may eventually translate into new medicines that better treat vascular diseases such as heart
attack, stroke and blood-related problems.”
The mission of the American Heart Association is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. For more information about the AHA,
visit www.heart.org.
As Tennessee’s only public, statewide academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is
to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region,
by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected
baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate
Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or allied health students — in addition
to medical residents and fellows — at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health
Science Center has educated and trained more than 56,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state. For
more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.
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