U of S Researcher Elected Fellow of the American Heart Association

Posted December 09, 2002


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 9, 2002 2002-12-03-ME

U of S Researcher Elected Fellow of the American Heart Association

A world-renowned University of Saskatchewan hypertension expert has been
elected to a prestigious fellowship with the American Heart Association
(AHA).

U of S physiologist Dr. Rui Wang was recently made a member of the AHA
Council on High Blood Pressure Research. He is the second U of S researcher
to be elected as a Fellow of this Council, and one of only 18 Canadians so
honored. The fellowship recognizes excellence, innovation, and leadership in
both private practice and academia.

This honor is only given to physicians or medical scientists who have made
outstanding contributions to hypertension research. Wang was nominated for
his work concerning the role of gasotransmitters in controlling hypertension
(high blood pressure).

Regular blood pressure depends on the ability of the blood vessel muscle
cells to contract or expand appropriately. Wang recently discovered that
gasotransmitters, particularly hydrogen sulfide gas molecules created in the
body, help regulate vascular functions such as hypertension.

This research revealed that hydrogen sulfide acts as a biological switch for
relaxing blood vessels by opening a special class of ion channels in the
cells, reducing blood pressure.

The findings were published in the November 2001 issue of the European
Molecular Biology Organization Journal.

Last week, BioNatCom Technologies Inc., founded by Wang and U of S
technology transfer company UST Inc., was chosen as a semi-finalist in the
2002 Innovations Challenge, sponsored by the University of Toronto. The
company is patenting herbal products to treat impotence and hypertension.

Wang leads an extensive research team of graduate students and post-doctoral
fellows who collaborate with researchers in Canadian universities and around
the world.

He is a prolific writer, and has been invited to lecture at universities
across Canada and in the U.S.A., Europe, and Asia.

Among his many awards and honors, Wang has received the Young Investigator
Award from the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the McDonald Scholar
Award from the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

The first Saskatchewan researcher elected a Fellow of this Council was U of
S clinical pharmacologist Dr. Thomas Wilson.

The American Heart Association is a national voluntary health agency whose
mission is to reduce disability and death from cardiovascular diseases and
stroke.

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For more information, contact:

Dr. Rui Wang
Department of Physiology
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-6592

Kathryn Warden
Research Communications
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca