Iowa Translational Vascular Physiology Lab

Lab mission statement: To understand the mechanisms that contribute to accelerated vascular aging (arterial stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, cerebrovascular dysfunction) in persons at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease and cognitive impairment and test the efficacy of pharmacological, exercise, and nutraceutical interventions on attenuating or reversing vascular aging in these individuals.

Lab Director:

Gary L Pierce, PhD, Professor, Department of Health, Sport, and Human Physiology

News and Events

Undergraduate Student -

Nathan Barlow

Presents a poster on his research project at the 2025 Iowa Fall Undergraduate Research Festival (Nov 2025)

Phd Student

Kristen Davis

Presents a poster at the 2025 American Physiology Society Summit conference in Baltimore (April 2025).
Publishes a paper in the American Journal of Physiology Heart Circulatory Physiology "Load-dependent mechanisms contribute to increased aortic stiffness among women with a history of preeclampsia: relation with cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity" (Dec 2024)

Undergraduate Student -

Jackson Ernst

POSTDOCTORAL Fellow-

Matthew Armstrong

Doctoral Student -

Ginny Nuckols

Doctoral Student -

Colin Gimblet

Publishes paper in the Journal of Hypertension on sex-specific associations of central reservoir pressure with age and vascular remodeling. (February 2023)
Awarded predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association to study the effects of glycocalyx thickness on blood vessel function with aging. (December 2022)

2023 Iowa PHYSIOLOGICAL

Society Conference

Undergraduate student Jackson Ernst wins 1st place undergraduate poster and doctoral student Ginny Nuckols wins 2nd place graduate poster at the 2023 Iowa Physiological Society Conference. (November 2022)

Former Doctoral Student -

Rachel Leuhrs

Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Seth Holwerda publishes paper in Journal of Applied Physiology on aortic stiffness and retinal blood flow pulsatility in humans (July 2020)
See story on UIowa News on graduating PhD student Lyndsey DuBose "Iowa is the most magical place" (December 2019)
Doctoral student Lyndsey DuBose successfully defends her PhD dissertation on "Extracerebral Contributions to Brain Aging and Cognitive Decline" (Oct 2019)
Dr. Seth Holwerda receives 2017 Postdoctoral Research Recognition Award from the American Physiological Society Neural Control and Autonomic Regulation (NCAR) section (April 2017)
Dr. Seth Holwerda, postdoctoral fellow in the TVPL, was awarded a 2-year postdoctoral research fellowship from the American Heart Association starting Jan 1, 2017 (Dec 2016).

PrincIPAL Investigator -

Dr. Gary Pierce

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