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Contact Information: Georgia Prevention Institute HS-1640 Medical College of Georgia Augusta, GA 30912-3710 Phone: (706) 721-4534 FAX: (706) 721-7150 |
Core Faculty
The full-time GPI faculty and their research interests are:
Gregory Harshfield, PhD, Director, Professor of Pediatrics and Physiology, is a psychologist and physiologist whose research involves the identification of factors related to impaired functioning of the renal body-fluid system and blood pressure in African-Americans and obese individuals and the relationship to target organ damage to the heart, kidney, and vasculature. The factors examined include the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, the endothelial system, natriuretic peptides, and adipose-derived substances including leptin and angiotensinogen as well as genetic polymorphisms related to impaired sodium handling.
Vernon Barnes, PhD, Research Scientist, is a physiologist whose research involves the evaluation of stress reduction techniques (e.g., the Transcendental Meditation program) in the treatment of elevated blood pressure and associated preclinical markers of cardiovascular disease in youth.
Catherine Davis, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, a clinical health psychologist whose research involves the role of lifestyle behaviors upon the development of insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular risk in youth, as well as effects of exercise on cognition.
Yanbin Dong, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, is a molecular geneticist with interest in elucidating the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases by combined genetic, physiological, biochemical and clinical approaches.
DeHuang Guo, PhD, Research Scientist, is a cell biologist whose research focuses on identifying and evaluating preclinical biomarkers, cellular mechanisms, and biological pathways underlying the risk of hypertension and cardiovascular disease in adolescents and youth.
Ryan Harris, PhD, CCES, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, is a clinical exercise physiologist interested in utilizing exercise and/or physical activity as a tool in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease and the associated co-morbidities. In general, his research focuses on understanding how and why exercise facilitates such a favorable effect.
Gaston Kapuku, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, is a cardiologist and cardiovascular physiologist with interest in hemodynamics and genetics. His research involves the identification of early biobehavioral markers of cardiac function abnormalities in relation to development of hypertension and coronary artery disease.
Norman Pollock, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, is a nutritionist with an interest in understanding the complex relationship between fat and bone, focusing on predisposing factors such as diet, physical inactivity, metabolic diseases, hormonal imbalances, and genetic influences that are synonymous to both obesity and poor skeletal health.
Martha Tingen, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics with secondary appointments in the Schools of Graduate Studies and Nursing, is a nurse researcher targeting tobacco use prevention in children and tobacco cessation in adolescents and adults through behavioral interventions. Her primary and secondary prevention foci are aimed at preventing premature death and disabilities related to tobacco use to include cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Frank Treiber, PhD, Vice President for Research, Department of Pediatrics and Regents Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, became the director on July 1, 1999. He is a clinical child psychologist whose research evaluates the roles of stress, psychosocial factors, and genetics in the development of preclinical manifestations of cardiovascular diseases and the underlying neurohormonal mechanisms responsible for such relationships.
Xiaoling Wang, MD,PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics,has a PhD in Genetic Epidemiology. Her research focuses on the genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular disease. More specifically, she is investigating the interactive roles of stress and genetics in the development of essential hypertension and its sequelae.
Deborah Young-Hyman, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Young-Hyman's areas of research include the prevention and treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders in children and adolescents with an emphasis on family based multidisciplinary lifestyle interventions. She is also interested in the psychosocial correlates of chronic disease (the metabolic syndrome, overweight, CVD risk) and psychological risk factors for disease development in childhood and adolescence.
Haidong Zhu, MD, PhD,
Assistant Professor,
is a molecular geneticist whose
research focuses on identifying the contributions of candidate genes to the
etiology of essential hypertension.
Grant Funded Research Trainees
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Post-Doctoral Fellows |
Karen Petty, PhD, is a post-doctoral fellow in clinical psychology, whose research involves the biological and psychological correlates of cardiovascular risk and diabetes. Specifically, she is involved in data management, analyses, and interpretation, recruitment of subjects for study, grant writing, preparing manuscripts for publication, and reviewing submitted manuscripts.