SUNY Downstate Medical Center Professor Elected UK Fellow
Burton M. Altura has been elected to the Royal Society of Medicine.
Published April 13, 2009
Burton M. Altura, Professor of Physiology, Pharmacology & Medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, has been elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine in the UK. Altura, who earned a PhD from the New York University School of Medicine in 1964, investigates the role of magnesium, sphingolipids, and lipid messengers in vascular biology and disease processes, such as stroke, diabetes mellitus, and atherogenesis. An additional major interest is the role of alcohol and substances of abuse in stroke etiology. Research done in Altura’s laboratory has already led to the prevention of atherosclerotic lesions, hypertension, and stroke-like events in experimental animal models. Additional experimental studies, using manipulations in divalent cat-ion metabolism have been very effective in the prevention and amelioration of alcohol-, phencyclidine-, cocaine-, and other substance abuse-induced strokes.