FACULTY, GEORGIA PREVENTION INSTITUTE
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine (Cardiology)
Co-Director of Cardiovascular Discovery Institute
Dr. Kapuku is a cardiologist and cardiovascular physiologist with interest in hemodynamics, genetics and effects of gene-environment interaction on the expression of cardiovascular disease. His research involves the identification of early bio-behavioral markers (e.g., chronic stress, inflammation, natriuretic hormones) of cardiac function abnormalities (i.e., diastolic dysfunction) in relation to hypertension and coronary artery disease.
Education & Training
PhD
University of Nagasaki, Japan 1993
Cardiology Fellowship
Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal 1994-1997
MD
University of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo 1983
Research Interests
Biobehavioral Medicine
Diastolic Function and Congestive Heart Failure
Gene-Environment Interaction and Preclinical Markers of Cardiovascular Disease
Health Disparity
Pre-clinical markers of Cardiovascular Disease
Projects
Seed Grant (Kapuku/VanTuyll, PI)
January 26, 2016 through June 30, 2017
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
The purpose of this project is to determine whether strategies such as specific choices of music characteristics can enhance health. It is expected that lower levels of oxytocin will be associated with poor health outcomes including higher blood pressure, accelerated heart rate and poor test performance.
Georgia Health Sciences University
June 2014 through January 2016
Role: Principal Investigator
This application was submitted at the American Heart Association to tackle the effect of breath attention meditation on diastolic function of prehypertensive individuals. This application is a randomized clinical trial aiming to enhance the parasympathetic activity. A subsequent reversal of diastolic dysfunction abnormalities is expected especially in individuals with cluster of CVD risk factors (e.g., African Americans).
NIH/NHLBI (Kapuku, PI)
September 2006 through June 2013
Role: Principal Investigator
This study tests whether (1) stress will be associated with changes in the separate components (isovolumetric relaxation, early and late filling phases) of diastolic function (DFx); (2) the effect of stress on the components of DFx will differ by race and/or gender; (3) stress-induced sodium excretion will correlate with concomitant stress-induced changes in diastolic function and (4) stress-induces sodium excretion will correlate with concomitant stress-induced changes in natriuretic peptides (ANP, BNP).
NHLBI (Treiber, PI)
April 2002 through March 2007
Role: Co-Investigator
This is a program project grant consisting of an integrated multidisciplinary program including 4 closely related projects examining the roles of stress lifestyle behaviors and genetic polymorphisms in the development of preclinical measures of essential hypertension.
NHLBI
August 2003 through July 2007
Role: Co-Investigator
This application examines the effects of obesity on stress-induced pressure natriuresis in youth.
NIH/NHLBI (Treiber, PI)
January 2005 through December 2009
Role: Co-Investigator
This application will investigate the effects of mindfulness meditation and lifestyle management practices on hemodynamics (primarily blood pressure) in adolescents.
American Heart Association (Wang, PI)
January 2007 through December 2010
Role: Co-Investigator
The major goals of this project are to identify genetic variants and gene-gene interactions contributing to population variations in heart rate variability in a longitudinal cohort.
NIH/NHLBI (Harshfield, PI)
July 2002 through June 2014
Role: Leader for Project 2 (3.0 calendar) and Biomedical Core Leader (3.0 calendar)
The PPG is an integrated multidisciplinary program including 4 closely related research projects (2 human, 2 animal) and 4 cores (administrative, bioassay, biomedical and data management/statistics). The 4 research projects examine the roles of stress exposure, lifestyle behaviors and genetic predisposition in the development of preclinical measures of essential hypertension. Adiposity has been included as a mediating factor in our gene/environment interaction model. Four vasoactive pathways (sympathetic nervous system, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis system, and endothelial system) in conjunction with associated stress activated candidate genes will be examined which may link stress exposure to development of preclinical measures of hypertension.
Project leader of Project 2: Environmental Stress, Genes and Risk of Hypertension.
The objective of this Project is to ascertain how chronic environmental stress in combination with unfavorable genotypes via 2 new mechanistically pathways( hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and oxidative stress) affects blood pressure reactivity to acute stress and development of preclinical cardiovascular disease. The Project will study a cohort of 300 African Americans and 370 European Americans (mean age= 25.5 years) who will have been evaluated 14 times over a 17 year period.
CVDI
July 2013 through June 2014
Support cardiovascular research activities in the echocardiography core lab
NIH/NHLBI (Wang, PI)
January 2011 through December 2015
Role: Co-Investigator
We aim to identify the differential methylation profiles between obese cases and lean controls and further evaluate whether these methylation changes are involved in the pathogenesis of obesity related co-morbidities.
NIH/NHLBI (Davis, PI)
September 2010 through May 2013
Role: Co-Investigator
NIH/NHLBI
April 2007 through April 2012
Role: Co-Investigator
This study examines the aspects of ethnicity that are associated with the differential expression of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes risk factors in African Americans and European Americans. Given increasing awareness of the extent to which environments typically faced by these ethnic groups differ, environmental influence on these processes may be an important factor that is an aspect of ethnicity. Since behavior is one pathway through which SES influences are thought to be expressed in disease, this proposal focuses specifically on stress responsivity, which is thought to be linked to the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease. The subject sample will consist of monozygotic and dizygotic twins.
Seed Grant/Cardiovascular Discovery Institute (GHSU)
April 2010 through June 2013
Role: Principal Investigator
The purpose of this research is to tackle mechanisms of stress related reduction of diastolic function during the normal aging process and forestall an epidemic expansion of congestive heart failure.
Bridge Grant/Cardiovascular Discovery Institute (GHSU)
June 2012 through November 2013
Role: Principal Investigator
The purpose of this research is to tackle Biobehavioral mechanisms of stress related reduction of diastolic function in adults aged 55-70 years.
Honors & Awards
2016
Mentor: Engel group, APS Young Investigator Colloquium 2016
2015
Mentor: Engel group, APS Young Investigator Colloquium 2015
2013
Mentor: Engel group, APS Young Investigator Colloquium 2013
2012
Elected Member of the Academy of Bio-behavioral Medicine Research
2012
Invited chair and speaker: American Academy of Biobehavioral Medicine
2012
Chair: Health Disparity Panel (APS), Athen, Greece
2010
Chair: APS Diversity Committee/ Special Interest Group
2010
Invited Speaker Second International Congress of Cardiology (China)
2008
APS Council member and Chair of Diversity Committee/Special Interest Group
2008
MCG President Award
2008
Who's who in America
2008
PEDHTN paper of the week: Pediatric International Society of Hypertension
2008
Medical Fellowship Award: International Society of Hypertension in Blacks
2008
Blue Ribbon Presentation: International Society of Hypertension in Blacks
2005
Blue Ribbon Presentation: International Society of Hypertension in Blacks
2005
Research Career Development Award
2003
Health Care Heroes: Commended for bringing comfort and translation assistance (English-French)
to a patient (5 west)
2003
Selected presenter for the research symposium in memory of Dr. Markowitz at the Annual
Meeting of the American Society of Psychosomatic Medicine
2002
Elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research
1994
Recipient of Quebec Scientific Research Fund
1988
Recipient of Mombusho Scholarship (Japanese Government Ministry of Education)
1983
MD with honors
Select Publications
Hao G, Wang X, Treiber AF, Davis H, Leverett S, Su S, Kapuku GK. Growth of carotid intima-media thickness in African American and European American
young adults. Journal of American Heart Association 2016 (in press)
Ye C, Pan Y, Xu X, Su S, Snieder H, Treiber T, Kapuku G, Wang X. Pulse wave velocity in elastic and muscular arteries: tracking stability and association with anthropometric and hemodynamic measurements. Hypertension Research 2016 (in print)
Kapuku G , Treiber FA, Raouane F , Halbert J, Davis H, Youg-Mayes S, Robinson V, Harshfield G. Race/ethnicity determines the relationships between oxidative stress markers and blood pressure in individuals with high cardiovascular disease risk. Journal of human Hypertension 2016, 1-6
Hill LK, Dixie D, Hu JK, Sollers JJ, Kapuku GK, Wang X, Snieder H, Thayer JF. Ethnic Differences in Resting Heart Rate Variability: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine 2015: 77:16-25 PMID: 25551201
Choksy P, Davis H, Januzzi J, Thayer J, Harshfield G, Robinson V, Kapuku GK. Brain Natriuretic Hormone Predicts Stress-Induced Alterations in Diastolic Function. Am J Med Sci. 2014; 348:366-70 PMID: 24841419
Su S, Wang X, Kapuku GK, Treiber F, Pollock D, Harshfield G, McCall W, Pollock J. Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated With Detrimental Hemodynamics and Elevated Circulating Endothelin-1 in Adolescents and Young Adults. Hypertension 2014;64(1):201-7 PMID: 24777980
Gregoski MJ, Buxbaum SG, Kapuku GK, Dong Y, Zhu H, Davis M, Gonto K, Treiber FA. Interactive Influences of Ethnicity, Endothelin-1 Gene, and Everyday Discrimination Upon Nocturnal Ambulatory Blood Pressure. Ann Behav Med. 2013 Feb 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Diana G Murro, Melinda Beavers, Gregory A Harshfield , Kapuku GK. Dysregulation of Aldosterone Contributes to Elevated Left Ventricular Mass in Black Boys. Pediatr Nephrol. 2013;28:655-660
Barnes V, Kapuku G, Treiber F. Impact of Transcendental Meditation on Left Ventricular Mass in African American Adolescents. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012;2012:923153. Epub 2012 May 22.
Kapuku GK, Ge D, Vemulapalli S, Harshfield GA, Treiber FA, Snieder H. Change of genetic determinants of left ventricular structure in adolescence: longitudinal evidence from the Georgia cardiovascular twin study. Am J Hypertens. 2008 Jul;21(7):799-805.
Harshfield G, Kapuku GK, Ortiz L, Hanevold C, Dong Y, Wilson M. The association of race and sex to the pressure natriuresis response to stress. Eth Dis. 207;17:498-502, 2007
Gutin B, Johnson M, Humphries MC, Hatfield-Laude JL, Kapuku GK, Allison JD, Gower BA, Daniels SR, Barbeau P. Relations of visceral adiposity to
cardiovascular disease risk factors in black and white teens. Obesity 15;1029-35,
2007
Kapuku GK, Harshfield G, Davis H, Treiber F. Early markers of cardiovascular disease. Vascular
Pharmacology 45; 277-80, 2006.
Kapuku G, Treiber F, Hartley B, Ludwig D. Influence of Gender on endothelial Dependant arterial dilation in youth with positive family history of hypertension. Am J Med Sci 2004; 327:305-309
Wilson ME, Harshfield GA, McLeod K, Mackey L, Hanevold C, Kapuku GK, Gillis D, Edmonds L. Lean body mass facilitates stress-induced pressure natriuresis in African-American youth. Amer J Hypertens 2004; 17:1023-8
Campus (HS-1723)
1120 15th Street, Augusta, GA 30912
706-721-8343 706-721-7150
gkapuku@augusta.edu