As part of its Training Interdisciplinary & Emerging Research Scholars (TIERS) program, the CCTS has launched a new online journal club. One novel aspect of this club is that the speakers will be authors of the high-impact journal article being discussed. This will provide participants with the opportunity to interact directly with individuals who were integrally involved with the science. The club will meet on the third Wednesday of the month from 5-6pm.

Attendees of the first club meeting on Wednesday July 20th will hear Drs. Suzanne Oparil and Cora E. Lewis discuss the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT). The main finding in SPRINT revealed that maintaining systolic blood pressure at lower than currently recommended levels (<120 mm Hg) can greatly reduce cardiovascular complications and deaths in older adults.

Dr. Oparil is distinguished professor of Medicine, professor of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology, section chief of Vascular Biology and Hypertension, and director of the Vascular Biology and Hypertension Program of the Division of Cardiovascular Disease in the UAB Department of Medicine. She is the principal investigator and director for the SPRINT UAB Clinical Center Network (CCN), supervising over 20 clinical sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico with 1,950 enrolled participants. Dr. Lewis is professor and associate director of Research, UAB Division of Preventive Medicine, and a co-author of the 2015 SPRINT journal article that will be discussed (see table below for link).

The journal club will meet quarterly, interspersed with regular TIERS meetings on non-club months. Participants do not have to have a current career development or training award to attend. Any junior faculty, postdoctoral fellow, and pre-professional student interested in an academic research career may participate. Both TIERS meetings and the online journal club will be available via GoToMeeting (register here). The schedule for upcoming TIERS/Journal Club is below.