One of the members of NIU’s very own research community has been granted $20,000 for continued research on the processes of the human heart.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Gary Michael Baker has been awarded funding for research by the Illinois Affiliate of the American Heart Association. The grant will be used for fiscal year 1992-1993.

According to Baker, the research funds are awarded in two-year terms, and this is the second year of a grant that was given to him in July of 1991.

Baker explained he had received a grant from the American Heart Association in the past. Baker said he received a two year grant from 1989 to 1991 as well.

He also said another grant was pending in which he applied for the fiscal years of 1993 to 1995. “I hope that one will be accepted,” he said. The grant helped fund the work Baker and his graduate students worked on.

Baker’s area of research is energy production in the heart. He explained the importance of his research.

“A number of people are born with defects in enzymes which produces energy the heart needs,” he said. He said he hopes to establish a link between what they’ve learned to the problem.

He said this research is important because the heart tissue requires an “enormous amount of energy.” He also said he hoped the research would help explain why people are born with these defects.

The results of Baker’s works have been published in scholarly journals. He listed three including Biochemistry, the Journal of Theoretical Biology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry. He said he has been cited in each since 1991.