The National Institutes of Health has awarded Linda Boland, associate professor of biology at University of Richmond, a three-year, $278,682 grant to research lipid modulation of potassium channels — important to the rhythm of heart muscle and the electrical activity of brain cells.

The grant comes from NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences and includes funds for a post-doctoral fellow and several undergraduate student research assistants.

Boland studies the modulation of potassium ion channels by membrane-derived polyunsaturated fatty acids. The signals are released following certain forms of cellular communication and impact proper rhythmic firing of heart muscle and some regions of the brain — affecting memory disorders, epilepsy, pain, and cell death during stroke and heart attack.

“In the past six years, 26 Richmond students have played an integral role in research in my lab, doing the types of experiments that are typically done in a medical school setting,” said Boland. “I am fortunate that undergraduate students at Richmond have been motivated to ask and answer really hard questions how lipids derived from the cell membrane influence the electrical activity of cells. The answers to these questions have important health implications for brain and heart.”

Boland has taught at UR since 2004, after earning a Ph.D. from UNC-Chapel Hill, completing two post-doctoral positions at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and teaching for 10 years at the University of Minnesota Medical School.