Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center
at Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

In 1999, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation approved funding for the establishment of a new clinical cardiovascular research center at one of the nation's great academic research universities, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center began operation in October of 1999 with an initial grant of $24 million that will support research activities over four years. The purpose of the Center is to develop new measures that reduce death and disability from atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD) and its major complications, especially left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and heart failure. Central themes include: gene-environment interactions in the pathobiology of ASHD and LVH; control of hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia; ethnic differences in risk for ASHD and LVH; the elucidation of pathways leading to cardiac hypertrophy, and the development of strategies to promote renewal of damaged myocardium. As of September 2006, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation awarded additional grants in the amount of $11.89m over three years bringing the total Foundation commitment to UT Southwestern's Cardiovascular Research Program to approximately $54m since 1999.

The Center has three major projects:

Project 1:	Small Molecular Modulators of Cardiac Hypertrophy and Failure: Target Identification and Translation to Drug Discovery (Eric N. Olson, PhD, Principal Investigator)
Project 2:	Molecular mechanisms of myocardial regeneration and stem cell biology (Daniel Garry, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator)
Project 3:	Genetic Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease and repeat evaluations for the Dallas Heart Study (DHS-2) (Helen H. Hobbs, MD, Principal Investigator)