LDS Hospital honors its researcher of year

LDS Hospital has named John Carlquist the winner of its 2006 Researcher of the Year Award.

Carlquist, a Utah native, has a doctorate and is a longtime cardiac researcher and director of the cardiovascular laboratory at the hospital.

He started his medical-research career seeking the causes of organ rejection in heart transplant patients, focusing on the elements that cause rejection in some people more often than others and whether he could find predictive factors to identify those who are more apt to reject the organ.

Recently, he and colleagues have searched for the genetic relationships to lipid-metabolism and the effects of inflammation and infection on the development of coronary heart disease. Certain common viruses such as cytomegalovirus do little damage on their own but rev up the immune system, resulting in organ rejection or atherosclerosis in a heart transplant patient.

Carlquist and collaborators at LDS Hospital comprise the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study, which is the largest existing repository for DNA and clinical data related to heart disease. Their research is also shedding light on the inter-related nature of risk factors for coronary heart disease such as cholesterol, diabetes, inflammation, and smoking. Inflammation is interesting, he says.

As in most things medical, inflammation is a two-edged sword. It is absolutely necessary for the healing of an infection or sprained ankle, but it also appears to trigger the build-up of plaque on interior arterial surfaces.

The researcher of the year award is presented annually to a researcher at LDS Hospital who demonstrates excellence in the field of medical research. Currently there are nearly 500 clinical research studies in progress at LDS Hospital.