DNA and cardiovascular defects

Navy Researcher Earns Top Honors for Heart Disease Genetics Project

Story Number: NNS050527-16 Release Date: 5/30/2005 2:15:00 AM By Journalist 1st Class (SW/AW) AnTuan Guerry, National Naval Medical Center Public Affairs

BETHESDA, Md. (NNS) -- National Naval Medical Center medical researcher Lt. Cmdr. Brett Siegfried earned top honors in the staff level category at the 20th Annual Navywide Academic Research Competition May 13, in Portsmouth, Va.

Siegfried, who works in Bethesda's neonatology department, earned the award for a congenital heart disease project in which he explored DNA to find the cause of cardiovascular defects. Siegfried spent the past two-and-a-half years working with a group of doctors, researchers and fellows at the National Institutes of Health on the bench science research project exploring the genetics, or genes, involved in cardiovascular development and disease.

"It's a little like looking for a needle in the haystack," said Siegfried.

Scientific research like this is at the heart of nearly every major medical discovery, added Siegfried.

"Bench research is important to the medical field because the groundbreaking work that results in the cures and treatments down the road - whether it's five years, 10 years or a generation - comes on the back of this type of research," Siegfried said.

This is the second level of research competitions for Siegfried, who won Bethesda's research competition in April to earn the right to compete in the Navywide field. While Siegfried's research award was an individual recognition, he said this work is a team project.

"I want to underscore the fact this research project is a collaborative and group effort," Siegfried said. "Getting a study of this magnitude done takes teamwork."

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