Our Research
Our NIH-funded research investigates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and its role in blood pressure regulation across physiological states — including the menopausal transition, when women’s cardiovascular risk rises sharply. We study how aldosterone, dietary sodium, and their interactions contribute to hypertension, with a particular focus on primary aldosteronism, a common but underdiagnosed and specifically treatable cause of resistant hypertension.
In the SALTY clinical trial, we used deep proteomics to discover that SVEP1 — a large extracellular matrix protein — is among the top plasma protein responses to dietary sodium loading. SVEP1 upregulation tracks inversely with blood pressure changes during sodium loading, offering a potential molecular explanation for the long-observed phenomenon of inverse salt sensitivity.
Featured Work