WU - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Researcher With the Center for Molecular Cardiology

Dr. Steven Marx, a researcher with the Center for Molecular Cardiology and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, describes how. "It's still unclear why people get hypertension," he says. "But one of the standard therapies are drugs that block one ion channel, the L-type calcium channel. People who have a mutation in a different channel, called BK, have ‘good' low blood pressure. A drug that activates the BK channel could be the future of treatment for hypertension."

While Dr. Colecraft is the Columbia Medical Center's first African-American basic science faculty member, a summer internship program for students under-represented in medicine founded by Dr. Marks will help to ensure that future Henry Colecrafts can pursue their dreams.