Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. The East Carolina University Heart Institute is a center at the forefront of innovation in research, treatment, and prevention of heart disease. The facilities provide for the testing of new medicines, medical devices, and other translational research applications. The institute is home to the daVinci noninvasive surgical robot system used in the first complete mitral valve repair surgery in the U.S and two nuclear cameras for state of the art diagnostic imaging. Plans are also currently underway to install advanced cardiac CT scanners that can also be used by clinicians and scientists in clinical trials and translational research.

The East Carolina University medical sciences complex serves more than 1.5 million people with respiratory disease in rural areas of eastern North Carolina. The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine is the largest referral center second only to Research Triangle Park in Raleigh-Durham, NC. The Division is home to an active translational research program with numerous NIH grants as well as industry research and device trials. There are also facilities with access to cutting-edge laboratory techniques and an animal facility capable of supporting an array of models for human disease. Clinicians and researchers utilize a multidisciplinary approach to dissecting the biological significance of acute and chronic lung disorders. These approaches have aided in establishing a “tissue bank” of bronchial blood and cells for translational studies and pre-clinical testing of novel therapeutics for the treatment of asthma.