By Alice Eberhart
Thomas Hart, a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Department Health and Human Physiology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, presented research on the association between anxiety severity and increased blood pressure and blood pressure variability in apparently healthy young adults at the American Physiological Summit.
Hart has been conducting research on this subject in the Integrative Laboratory of Applied Physiology & Lifestyle Medicine since the beginning of his first year at Iowa. The team is looking into how different environments, particularly those related to an adverse childhood, can affect peoples’ sleep, autonomic activity, and blood pressure regulation, later in life.
For the abstract he presented, Hart won the Barbara A. Horwitz and John M. Horowitz Outstanding Undergraduate Abstract Award, Horwitz and Horowitz Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award, and was recognized as one of four finalists for the NCARnation Trainee Presentation Award.
Hart is the only undergraduate student to have been selected as a trainee for the NCARnation award — all the other finalists were PhD students.
“What he is accomplishing is pretty extraordinary for his position and level of training,” said assistant professor Nathaniel Jenkins, who is head of the lab and Hart’s mentor. “It’s been a lot of fun seeing his diligence and hard work pay off, and it’s great to see other people recognize what he can do.”
Hart’s journey with active research began his freshman year when he reached out to Jenkins’ lab.
“My interest in cardiovascular health arose in high school,” Hart said. “My dad enjoyed bodybuilding, which got me interested in working out. From there, I spent a couple years researching anything related to exercise science, which eventually led me to Jenkins’ papers and got me interested in cardiovascular health in general.”
By participating in the American Physiological Summit, Hart was able to gain great insight into what the professionals in his field are doing.
“I was able to bounce ideas off them, get an idea of what I should be doing next, and what their labs are doing. It allowed me to build great connections with people further along in their career path and to show me what it might look like for myself in the future,” Hart said.
Looking to the near future, Hart plans to continue his research on anxiety and blood pressure regulation. His goals are to publish a few papers, share his work at conferences with accredited researchers, and to continue to gain practical experience and new ideas related to his research.
Long term, Hart is looking at medical school, with one potential option being an MD-PhD in cardiology.
“Iowa is the only school I’ve applied to for medical school because I think there is no better option for me. There are tons of resources and a lot of researchers in the medical field that you can work with,” Hart said.
“During my time here so far, I’ve been lucky to work on Dr. Jenkins’ team. He’s given great guidance, taught me a lot about the field, and I wouldn’t have what I do without him. To be able to continue having these experiences into my graduate career will be invaluable,” Hart added.