LSU Health receives $2.5 million grant to reduce stroke risk for obese women taking birth control pills

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Rinku Majumder, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, a $2.5 million grant over four years to help reduce the high stroke risk to women with obesity who take estrogen-containing birth control pills.

Thrombosis, the spontaneous clotting of blood without an injury, is a major cause of stroke and other diseases. Compared with women of normal weight, overweight women who use estrogen-containing contraceptives are 25 times more likely to experience thrombosis."

Dr. inku Majumder, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine

Dr. Majumder previously discovered genetic factors that link thrombosis to obesity and estrogen. This grant will support further research to better understand this relationship and identify targets to prevent or reduce the dramatic risk of stroke due to thrombosis to women in this group.

"We are working to pinpoint the biochemical details of this linkage," adds Dr. Majumder. "Those details will guide creation of drugs that intercept the life-threatening connection and reduce the considerable risk of thrombosis for millions of women."

The project will begin on January 15, 2021.