Shelby Kutty, M.D., Ph.D., is an authority on cardiovascular imaging, including echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography of congenital heart disease. His areas of academic interest have focused on myocardial function assessment, therapeutic ultrasound and cardiovascular outcomes. Kutty’s research includes developing new imaging technology applications such as a smartphone application that uses patients’ echocardiographic images to track their progress. His work gives pediatric cardiologists better ways to predict outcomes in their patients and provide the most effective and appropriate treatments.

Research in the Sharon Turban Lab focuses on the effects of sodium and potassium on blood pressure and on kidney function. We lead the Chronic Kidney Disease-Potassium (CKD-K) clinical trial, funded by American Heart Association, which examines the benefits and safety of two levels of potassium intake in patients with kidney disease. Other research includes the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC) study, which aims to improve the understanding of chronic kidney disease and related cardiovascular illness.

The lab’s assets include three MRI systems available for pediatric studies, cardiac imaging processing, cardiovascular imaging and therapeutic ultrasound. A robust echocardiogram program conducts 10,000 transthoracic echocardiograms and 1,300 fetal echocardiograms per year, and maintains a database with 10 years of data.

Dr. Williams' research focuses on platelet physiology particularly as it relates to acute coronary syndromes and depression. Her laboratory specifically examines platelet aggregation, flow cytometric analysis to measure platelet activation, platelet luminescence as a measure of the platelet release reaction, many Elisa preparations in order to measure platelet function, platelet genotyping to determine the presence of certain platelet polymorphisms, and various other assays to distinguish mechanisms of platelet dysfunction. The goal for her cardiovascular platelet laboratory is to identify the etiology of platelet dysfunction in many disease states and apply methods that may improve this dysfunction that can eventually be translated to therapies for patients with cardiovascular disease. Scientific techniques performed in the lab include: flow cytometric analysis, platelet microparticle identification, and protein immunoprecipitation among other techniques.

The Allan Gelber Lab conducts research on the clinical epidemiology of rheumatic disorders. Our recent studies have explored topics that include the predicting factors of prevalent and incident gout; cardiovascular disease burden and risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis; autoantibodies in both primary and secondary SjogrenÕs syndrome; and predictors of outcomes in patients with scleroderma. In addition, we have a long-standing interest in the ways in which racial differences affect disease manifestations in relation to rheumatic disorders.