Susan Varnum

Susan Varnum, professor of chemistry in the College of Science and Technology, is conducting important research into the role that inflammation, the complex biological response of tissues to such harmful stimuli as pathogens or irritants, plays in the human body. Inflammation is a good thing, a protective attempt by the organism to remove the injurious stimuli and start healing.  In the absence of inflammation, wounds and infections would never heal and progressive destruction of the tissue would set in. But chronic inflammation can have unexpected and undesirable consequences. Inflammation is normally tightly regulated by the body, because running unchecked it can lead to such diseases as hay fever, atherosclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. 

Varnum and her colleagues are investigating many such potential problems and also creating better ways to measure the severity of inflammation. One quantitative measure of how inflamed a tissue is can be the presence of certain fatty acids that accompany inflammation. Varnum's research suggests that these lipids may play a role in the development of the free radicals that lead to disease.

The are evaluating lipid biomarkers of inflammation to see what cardiovascular risks it suggests. The purpose of this research is to understand how gender differences are manifested in cardiac vascular risk. More specifically, they ask, are the current clinical risk assessment tools sufficient for therapeutic recommendations? The hypothesis is that the state of inflammation in cardiac tissues from a variety of metabolic factors and disease provides a reliable risk assessment tool. Therefore, analytical tools to quantitatively assess the levels of inflammation will be developed; and these methods will be applied to understanding the development of cardiovascular disease and related gender differences using a rat model.

They are looking at inflammation in tumor progression. They are interested in the molecular mechanisms that regulate tumor progression in colon cancer. Currently they are developing bioanalytical methods to quantify major eicosanoids that regulate inflammation and tumor growth.

They are profiling the course of hypertensive disease. Determination of creatinine and 8-iso PGF2 from the same urine sample is efficient. Levels of urinary isoprostane and creatinine are markers of disease progression as is age. In this study, levels of inflammatory biolipids are quantified and correlated with levels of natural sex hormone to profile progression of disease from hypertensive conditions.

They also are interested in understanding how resolution of inflammation encourages recovery from traumatic brain injury and how the availability of brain active biolipids affects brain function.