The Jonker Lab is delighted to have been awarded an R21 to pursue exploratory studies on the role of birth on microvascular development in heart and skeletal muscle! This R21 was submitted in response to "[PA19-049] New Research Directions that Advance the NHLBI Strategic Vision Normal Biology" in collaboration with Dr. Laura Brown of the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, and Dr. Jonathan Lindner.

Birth is the single biggest physiological event in our lives. And it's universal, all of us mammals experience it. Oxygen levels in the blood changes, the workload on the heart and skeletal muscle changes, sources of nutrition change... So how does it affect growth and development of capillaries? We're looking forward to finding out!

Nobody can say the folks at the NIH don't have a sense of humor: the NOA arrived today, and the grant starts tomorrow. And at some level of the submission process someone accidentally hit ctl-v twice, and no one at the NIH took it upon themselves to fix it, so the title of the grant really is "Role of Birth on Microvasculature Development in Striated MuscleRole of Birth on Microvasculature Development in Striated Muscle".