1940s Research Milestones
1948
Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1937 Nobel Prize recipient in Physiology or Medicine, receives the first AHA-supported research grant. The $25,000 grant covers equipment and staff salaries. Szent-Gyorgyi receives a second grant (for $10,000) in 1949. Both grants are awarded to enable him to do fundamental studies on muscle energetics.
With national AHA support, Dr. Alfred Farah examines the influence of sulfahydryl compounds as diuretics. The next year, Dr. William Schwartz, also receiving national funding, finds sulfanilamide can act as a diuretic. Diuretics help treat congestive heart failure and high blood pressure.
1948
Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, 1937 Nobel Prize recipient in Physiology or Medicine, receives the first AHA-supported research grant. The $25,000 grant covers equipment and staff salaries. Szent-Gyorgyi receives a second grant (for $10,000) in 1949. Both grants are awarded to enable him to do fundamental studies on muscle energetics.
With national AHA support, Dr. Alfred Farah examines the influence of sulfahydryl compounds as diuretics. The next year, Dr. William Schwartz, also receiving national funding, finds sulfanilamide can act as a diuretic. Diuretics help treat congestive heart failure and high blood pressure.
1950s Research Milestones
1956
Dr. Ancel Keys, supported by funding from the Minnesota Affiliate, first links dietary fat with cholesterol. This discovery spurs the AHA to assume a leading role in urging Americans to change their eating habits.
Dr. Paul Zoll, aided by the Massachusetts Affiliate, publishes the first report of the successful ending of ventricular fibrillation in humans by externally applied countershock.
1957
Dr. William Wierich, assisted by support from the Minnesota Affiliate and joined by Drs. Vincent Gott and Walter Lillehei, implants the first externally powered pacemaker in a patient with a surgical heart blockage.
1958
Dr. Lewis Sapirstein, supported by the AHA Central Ohio Heart Chapter, uses radioactive potassium and rubidium to measure regional blood flow. This helps advance knowledge of blood flow throughout the entire circulatory system.
1960s Research Milestones
1961
Drs. William Kouwenhoven, James Jude and Guy Knickerbocker, with support from the Maryland Affiliate, report in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the application of external cardiac massage (CPR) on 118 patients.
1964
American Heart Association chooses biochemist Mildred Cohn as its first female career investigator. This honor provided research funding for the remaining 14 years of her research career. She overcame religious and sex discrimination to advance the study of metabolic processes -- research that contributed to the development of medical technologies like magnetic resonance imaging. Dr. Cohn's honors included the National Medal of Science, the first woman appointed to the editorial board of The Journal of Biological Chemistry, and the first woman to become president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She worked in laboratories or wrote papers with six Nobel laureates. She was also inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
1964
Dr. Richard Ross, aided by the Maryland Affiliate, measures myocardial blood flow using radioactive xenon. This improves diagnosis of patients with myocardial disease.
1966
In a project funded by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Heart Association, Dr. William Rashkind develops transeptal balloon septostomy, a procedure to correct septal defects.
1968
With national support, Dr. William Conner employs cholestyramine to lower cholesterol in the blood.
1970s Research Milestones
1971
Dr. Earl Sutherland is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for identifying cyclic AMP as the intra-cellular messenger. In 1967 he had received a Career Investigatorship through the national research program.
1980s Research Milestones
Drs. Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown, sponsored by the AHA in 1972, 1973 and 1975, are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research on the role of low-density lipoprotein receptors in controlling blood cholesterol levels. Their research provides new insights into the ways fatty cholesterol enters body cells and why cholesterol levels may become too high.
1990s Research Milestones
1990
Dr. John Clements, an AHA Career Investigator since 1964, receives U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for an artificial surfactant called Exosurf Neonatal, which counteracts Respiratory Distress Syndrome, a common cause of death for premature infants.
Dr. Andrew R. Marks' earlier basic research on calcium channel function provided preliminary data for the understanding of how the drug-eluting stent would work. The arterial stent has been a major medical advance for treating blockages. To address the complication of re-blocking of the artery caused by the cells from the blood vessel growing on the stent, Dr. Marks coats the stents with a couple of drugs, one being Rapamycin. Since 1986, Dr. Marks received seven AHA awards for a total of $1,217,296.84.
1992
Dr. Edwin Krebs, along with Dr. Edmond Fischer, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of how proteins are switched on to perform functions within cells. Dr. Krebs, whose research was supported in part by the AHA, had received the association's Research Achievement Award in 1987.
1998
Three Americans were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of nitric oxide -- a colorless gas that makes blood vessels dilate by relaxing the vessels' smooth muscles. The AHA funded one of the awardees, Dr. Robert Furchgott, from 1952-54. The AHA selected another of the Nobel Prize winners, Louis Ignarro, as the 1998 recipient of the AHA's Basic Research Prize presented at the AHA's 71st Annual Scientific Sessions.
2000s Research Milestones
2003
Dr. Peter Agre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of aquaporins, proteins that govern the movement of water in and out of cells. Dr. Agre received American Heart Association Established Investigator funding from 1987-92.
2007
Dr. Mario Capecchi is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discoveries in gene targeting. Dr. Capecchi received American Heart Association Established Investigator Award funding from 1969–73.
2008
Dr. Martin Chalfie, 2008 Nobel Prize recipient in Chemistry, received the British-American Research Fellowship from the American Heart Association in 1977. This fellowship gave U.S. postdocs access to training in Great Britain and British postdocs access to training in the United States.
Dr Chalfie's AHA-funded work used a fluorescence technique. Subsequently, Dr. Chalfie developed (by the mid-90's) green fluorescent protein (GFP), a visualization technique that has had a huge impact on our understanding of cellular structure and function of many cell types, including heart cells.
2011 Research Milestone
2011
Ralph Steinman, MD, recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of dendritic cells and their role in adaptive immunology. In the 1970’s, Steinman discovered the immune system's sentinel dendritic cells and showed that these cells, along with other parts of the immune system, could activate what is known as “adaptive immunity,” to help curb infections and to develop immunologic memory for protection in the future. The basic insights provided by his work have also been critical in the field of cardiac (or organ, including heart and lung) transplantation. Dr. Steinman’s research on dendritic cells and transplant biology was supported via an AHA Established Investigator award from 1980-1985.