Buell Foundation —
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A Message from the Chancellor Thank you for generously investing in the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Your support accelerates the pace of discovery and advances groundbreaking developments from the lab to the clinic, where they can transform lives. You help make our work possible. By supporting translational research, you create opportunities for our faculty to make significant strides in nephrology and heart disease. I invite you to read the following updates from Kathleen (KC) Woulfe, PhD, and Joshua Thurman, MD, both of whom have benefited from your support. Your philanthropic partnership enables us to shape the future of medicine — to reinvent the cures and care of tomorrow. With you by our side, nothing will slow us down.
With gratitude,
Donald M. Elliman, Jr. Chancellor, CU Anschutz Medical Campus
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Fueling Important Research of Heart Muscle Disease
Your support of the Division of Cardiology enables crucial investigations into cardiomyopathy, a disease that affects the heart muscle. Kathleen (KC) Woulfe, PhD, is one of our leading researchers in this area. Her goal is to understand how heart function differs as males and females age, and to pinpoint the different mechanisms that help us prevent age-associated declines in cardiac function. This past year, her lab identified key differences in the proteins that cause contraction and relaxation of the heart muscles between males and females as they age. Dr. Woulfe’s team is also working on developing animal models to study these differences. Findings that will come from this research have the potential to delineate age and sex specific therapies for heart failure patients. Additionally, your funds support Doron Regev, a highly qualified research technician, who has extensive animal experience. Mr. Regev started at CU Anschutz in July 2021 and in the first few months since becoming a team member, he has established a frailty assessment to monitor the health of our mouse colony. Since this colony includes aged animals, Mr. Regev’s mastery of maintaining the health of rodent colonies is an asset to our division, and his expertise enables us to conduct technical and challenging studies in aging animals.
“ Support from the Buell Foundation created a valuable opportunity for me to expand the growth and expertise of my lab. Without this support, continued execution of highly specialized and complex experiments would not be possible.” — Kathleen (KC) Woulfe, PhD Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiology
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Developing New Methods to Detect Inflammatory Kidney Disease
Because of your philanthropic support, our physician-scientists and researchers are making valuable discoveries to better understand kidney disease and improve care for patients. Over the past year, Joshua Thurman, MD, and his team continued to develop new methods of detecting inflammation in tissues. Currently, the accurate diagnosis of inflammatory diseases requires a biopsy— an invasive procedure. Dr. Thurman’s team is developing methods to detect inflammation throughout the entire body. Such methods could enable more accurate detection of disease activity, and this approach could also reduce the need for invasive biopsies. Dr. Thurman and his team continue to conduct basic research in animal models and in vitro systems, while corroborating their findings from animal models with patient-derived samples. Funding from the Buell Foundation has allowed them to continue performing experiments on human samples and look for the same hallmarks of immune activation that they see in disease models. In addition, several new technologies have become available on the Anschutz Medical Campus and your funding aided us in exploring new cutting-edge methods, such as spatial transcriptomics.
“ Grant funding is the foundation of a successful lab. However, support from an endowed chair lets me pursue what is most enjoyable about research — exploring unexpected observations that we may not understand or testing novel ideas in the lab. I remain incredibly honored and grateful for the support from the Buell Foundation.” — Joshua Thurman, MD Professor, Renal Medical Diseases and Hypertension
A Personal Reflection from Dr. Thurman “ I have a patient with lupus — a young woman who has been on continual treatment for more than 15 years and has had several kidney biopsies during that time. Perhaps most importantly, she would like to have another child but has put it off year after year because of her disease. Despite all that has befallen her, she shows up to every visit both optimistic and clear sighted about what she needs to do.”
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With Gratitude I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for your investments in our faculty at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Your partnership has kept us on the forefront of innovation and discovery. The Buell Foundation’s continued support is essential to driving basic science research in the Division of Nephrology. We have an ambitious vision to become one of the top kidney research centers in the country; a center uniquely positioned with infrastructure capable of translating scientific discoveries into improved clinical outcomes for patients with kidney disease. The funds of this endowment support infrastructure, personnel, novel technologies and pilot research projects that make our research more competitive and cutting-edge. Your incredible generosity continues to open countless possibilities. Philanthropy injects much-needed responsiveness and innovation into the kidney research process, raises awareness of research in kidney disease and attracts top talent to our Division of Nephrology and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Thank you for all that you do to support our mission.
Sincerely,
Michel Chonchol, MD Professor of Medicine and Division Chief Mats Wahlstrom Endowed Chair in Nephrology Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension
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Thank You for Your Partnership
We are grateful for all that you have helped us to achieve. Support for our talented faculty fuels our progress today and will enhance clinical care for future generations.
Contact Information: Kyle Jaccaud-Smith
Executive Director of Major Gifts kyle.jaccaudsmith@cuanschutz.edu
303.724.7906