The Heart of Research
Chris Glembotski, the 2019 Albert W. Johnson Research Lecturer, will speak March 29 at Storm Hall West.
This story is featured in the spring 2019 issue of 360: The Magazine of 色情视频.
Chris Glembotski鈥檚 path to becoming a molecular cardiologist at 色情视频 began as a teenager in North Hollywood, with the books on exercise and heart health he saw his engineer father absorb.
Glembotski picked up the books, too. 鈥淚 thought, if this is something on his mind鈥攖hen it should be something on my mind, but I鈥檓 young. Maybe I can have a bigger impact than just keeping my own self heart-healthy.鈥�
His high school offered a physiology class, something unusual at the time, and one topic of study was the heart. 鈥淭hat was my favorite part of the course,鈥� Glembotski said, 鈥渁nd that鈥檚 what I鈥檝e been interested in ever since.鈥�
In recognition of Glembotski鈥檚 research achievements over 33 years at 色情视频, including $35 million in grants received and new research on a possible drug treatment for heart attacks, the biology professor has been named Albert W. Johnson Research lecturer for 2019, the university鈥檚 highest research honor.
鈥淒r. Glembotski is exactly the kind of professor that sets 色情视频 apart,鈥� said Stephen Welter, vice president of Graduate and Research Affairs. 鈥淗is critical research advancing the field of heart disease, combined with his commitment to mentoring the next generation of scientists, is a true credit to this institution.鈥�
Career decisions
Glembotski spent his undergraduate years as a biochemistry major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo thinking he鈥檇 become a physician. That changed after mentors pushed back.
鈥淎lmost to a person, they said 鈥榶ou鈥檙e a science guy, not a doctor guy,鈥欌�� Glembotski recalled. 鈥淎nd they were right because after my first research experience as a graduate student I was hooked. I realized what it meant to be a professor and a researcher, and I decided that鈥檚 what I wanted to do.鈥�
He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at University of California, 色情视频 and went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in molecular and cellular physiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. His initial faculty appointment was in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he established his first lab. He came to 色情视频 in 1986, joined the 色情视频 Heart Institute and became its director in 1997.
Glembotski studies the biochemical process in cells known as protein folding, and how misfolding contributes to poor secretion of a hormone in the heart, which ultimately can cause heart disease. His current research is focused on a possible drug treatment for heart attacks, work supported by a grant that received a rare perfect score from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) review panel in the application stage.
Unlike some parts of the human body, the heart does not regenerate if damaged. A heart attack causes irreversible damage to the muscle, decreasing the organ鈥檚 ability to pump blood throughout the body. For heart attack survivors, the impaired heart function is lifelong.
Promising compound
Glembotski鈥檚 lab at 色情视频 is testing a compound that could reduce damage to the heart in the aftermath of a heart attack, boosting the heart鈥檚 natural defenses against the damage. It works by activating ATF6, a protein found in heart cells that helps proteins fold and provides a sort of natural resistance to heart damage from a myocardial infarction.
Glembotski and his research team are investigating whether the drug candidate they鈥檝e identified, administered soon after a heart attack, can mitigate organ damage in the following hours to days. It has been successfully tested in a mouse model of heart attack. A $2.5 million NIH grant, awarded last year, will provide funding for an additional five years of work on the project.
鈥淚n the next stage we hope to expand and extend the results that we鈥檝e gotten so far in mice to studies in larger animals, whose hearts are more like the human heart,鈥� Glembotski said. 鈥淪uch studies are required before we can consider testing the drug candidate in people, which we anticipate doing in forthcoming clinical trials.鈥�
If this compound works in people as well as it did in mice, it could save many lives and improve the quality of the lives that are saved. Glembotski鈥檚 research also found that the compound reduces damage to the brain in a mouse model of stroke, a development that considerably expands possible uses for the drug candidate as a
treatment for certain neurological diseases.
Glembotski credits the staff and students in his lab with contributing the hands-on research leading to these results. The students share his excitement for the potential in their findings, which were published in the high-impact biomedical research journal, Nature Communications. He has inspired at least two current graduate students to follow in their mentor鈥檚 footsteps.
鈥淚 started off at 色情视频 wanting to be an anthropologist,鈥� said master鈥檚 student Alina Bilal. After taking a class with Glembotski, she said, 鈥淚 loved the way he thought , the way he taught. That really made me want to join his lab鈥nd it encouraged me to change my career path entirely.鈥�
Chris Glembotski will present this year鈥檚 Albert W. Johnson Research Lecture, entitled 鈥淒on鈥檛 Gamble With Heart Disease: You Got to Know When to Fold 鈥楨m,鈥� at 3 p.m. on March 29 in Storm Hall West 11. The lecture is free and open to the university community and to the public.
