The Byrd Lab
University of Michigan Medical School · Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
The Byrd Lab focuses on bettering human health by improving the diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure, the leading risk factor for death and disability.
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 the most robust plasma protein response to dietary sodium loading, outranking canonical markers like renin and NT-proBNP. 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