Jamie Rausch, PhD, RN, assistant professor at the IU School of Nursing, has been awarded a grant totaling $21,000 from the August Tomusk Research Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.
This grant is for her project, “Evaluation of Leptin, Adiponectin, and the Leptin-to-Adiponectin Ratio (LAR) in Heart Failure Patients." This study will provide the first step in evaluating leptin, adiponectin, and LAR as biomarkers in heart failure to improve monitoring, diagnoses, prognoses, symptoms, and quality of life.
The August Tomusk Foundation, established in 1990, is dedicated to the advancement of patient care, teaching and research in cardiothoracic surgery, vascular surgery, cardiovascular medicine, and transplantation. Dr. Tomusk, who was originally from Estonia, immigrated to the United States in 1950 and was a founding member of the Indiana Ohio Heart group whose members went on to perform the first heart transplant in northern Indiana.
In recognition of Dr. Tomusk and the Indiana Ohio Heart group’s contributions, the August Tomusk Foundation assists non-physician health personnel with funds for clinical and laboratory research into cardiovascular and thoracic disease.