Join the Lab
Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for death and disability worldwide, yet the way we diagnose and treat it has barely changed in decades. Most patients are still managed with empiric medication choices. Conditions like primary aldosteronism — specifically treatable and remarkably common — remain underdiagnosed. We don’t fully understand why blood pressure rises sharply after menopause, or what it means when someone’s blood pressure falls in response to sodium loading.
These are the problems we work on.
What We Do
The Byrd Lab combines clinical research, proteomics, and physiology to understand blood pressure regulation at a mechanistic level. Our work spans NIH-funded clinical trials, large-cohort epidemiology, and molecular discovery. Recent projects have involved deep plasma proteomics (7,000+ proteins), the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system across the menopausal transition, and the biology of SVEP1, an extracellular matrix protein we identified as a top molecular responder to dietary sodium.
The specifics of what a trainee works on depend on which questions are most alive when they arrive — and that’s a feature, not a limitation. People who thrive here are drawn to the problem more than to any single technique.
Who Should Reach Out
We welcome inquiries from undergraduate students, medical students, and graduate students.
If you’re interested, send a brief email to Dr. Byrd — a few sentences about who you are and what draws you to this work is plenty.
Ann Arbor
The University of Michigan is a major research university in a midsize city that is consistently ranked among the best places to live in the United States. Ann Arbor offers a walkable downtown, a serious food scene, Big Ten athletics, and easy access to the outdoors. Detroit is 45 minutes east. Chicago is four hours west. The cost of living is reasonable by academic-city standards.