— ANNUAL REPORT 2022 — Buell Foundation
“On behalf of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, thank you for your generous philanthropic investments in the CU Division of Cardiology and the CU Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension. Support from the Buell Foundation is helping us redefine the future of care for heart and kidney disease. Your investments keep our skilled physician-scientists at the leading edge of innovation and bolster our mission of developing improved knowledge and delivering high-quality patient care. We look forward to our continued partnership and all that we will accomplish together.”
Donald M. Chancellor,EllimanCUAnschutz Medical Campus
Dr. Thurman is also examining the role that the immune system plays in the progression of chronic kidney disease. His team discovered that once the kidney is injured — regardless of the initial cause – the immune system reacts against it, causing further injury. This observation may explain why chronic kidney disease tends to progress, and it may lead to new treatment approaches to stop this process. “The Division of Nephrology was among the top three divisions in the Department of Medicine to receive federal funding. Thanks in large part to the Buell Foundation’s ongoing support of research initiatives in the renal division, we continue to receive numerous proposals from the NIH and further increase our prestige on the national stage. Because of you, we can continue to bring prominent leaders to campus and provide continuous education to faculty and fellows in the renal division.”
—
Retaining top talent like Joshua Thurman, MD, is critical to accelerating the impact of his work on the immunologic causes of kidney disease. Your support has allowed his team to try several cutting-edge research methods that are available on the Anschutz Medical Campus including molecular ion beam imaging (MIBI) and spatial transcriptomics analysis. The pilot data generated with these funds led to additional funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to use these same methods to analyze tissue from patients with chronic kidney disease.
—Michel Chonchol, MD Professor of Medicine and Division Chief Mats Wahlstrom Endowed Chair in Nephrology Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension 2
Joshua Thurman, MD Professor, Renal Medical Diseases and Hypertension
“New research developments in medicine are not only groundbreaking for us as physician-scientists, but they are also deeply important and personal for our patients. Funding from the Buell Foundation affords me the flexibility to explore novel ideas in the lab that can move forward more quickly and make a difference in patients’ lives. I remain incredibly honored and grateful for the support.”
—
Investigating the Role of the Immune System in Kidney Disease
“Support from the Buell Foundation has been instrumental in expanding new ideas and testing exciting hypotheses. I am sincerely grateful for the new opportunities this funding has created.”
Kathleen (KC) Woulfe, PhD Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiology
— 3 —
Heart failure and cardiac dysfunction are a major cause of pathophysiology. Clear differences in cardiac diseases have been characterized based on the age and sex of patients. It is vital to understand the mechanisms that lead to sex and age differences in heart failure and cardiac dysfunction to better personalize and improve therapies. Because of this, Kathleen (KC) Woulfe, PhD, continues to investigate age and sex differences in cardiac physiology and disease. Thanks to your generous support, Dr. Woulfe has identified specific differences in proteins that regulate contraction and relaxation in female hearts. Specifically, a protein modification called acetylation that controls relaxation is decreased in the hearts of women as they age. The team also discovered an enzyme that takes away acetylation, called histone deacetylase 8, increases in female hearts with age. Dr. Woulfe found that inhibiting histone deacetylase 8 leads to faster relaxation. These preliminary data were instrumental in achieving a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association. Additionally, your contributions supported Doron Regev, a highly qualified research technician whose animal expertise is critical to completing complex animal experiments in aging rodents.
Important Insight into Therapies for Heart Failure Patients
The basic science group in the CU Division of Cardiology is one of the most collaborative and productive in the world, and it starts with investment from community partners like you. Endowment funding supports infrastructure, equipment and protected time that enable our cardiovascular researchers to follow their hearts into truly novel exploration of cardiomyocyte biology. With the ongoing support of the Buell Foundation, our cardiology researchers are gaining novel insights into cardiac fibrosis, cardiomyocyte metabolism and regulation, and ageand gender-specific changes in cardiac function that are already guiding the development of better therapies.
Sincerely,
Partners in Philanthropy
On behalf of our dedicated faculty and the many people whose lives are improved by this work, thank you.
I am honored and humbled to recognize what the Buell Foundation has done to help advance innovation and discovery at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Your generous gifts fuel the groundbreaking translational research in heart and kidney disease taking place on our campus.
Larry A. Allen, MD, MHS Professor of Medicine, Kenneth Poirier Endowed Chair Interim Head for Cardiology Medical Director, Advanced Heart Failure
— 4 —
Thank you for the work you make possible here every day. We look forward to our continued partnership and all that we will accomplish together. With Gratitude Contact Information: Kyle ExecutiveJaccaud-SmithDirectorofMajor 303.724.7906kyle.jaccaudsmith@cuanschutz.eduGifts