July 1, 2018

2018 AHA-VIVA Foundation Research Awards

The VIVA Foundation is committed to supporting the next generation of vascular scientists. In partnership with the American Heart Association, The Foundation has funded early career researchers since 2017. Their research expands our understanding of cardiovascular disease from a number of perspectives. See the list of 2018 grant recipients below, along with their winning project titles and a list of the resulting publications.

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Hisashi Sawada, MD, PhD | University of Kentucky, Lexington
Project: The Impact Of Smooth Muscle Cell Embryonic Origin On TGF-beta Signaling During Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Formation

• Angiotensin I Infusion Reveals Differential Effects of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme in Aortic Resident—Circulation Journal: Official Journal of the Japanese Circulation Society, 2020
• Hypercholesterolemia Accelerates Both the Initiation and Progression of Angiotensin II- induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms—Annals of Vascular Medicine and Research, 2020
• Megalin: A bridge connecting kidney, the renin-angiotensin system, and atherosclerosis—Pharmacological Research, 2019
• Ultrasound Imaging of the Thoracic and Abdominal Aorta in Mice to Determine Aneurysm Dimensions—Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE, 2019
  
• High Salt and IL (Interleukin)-17 in Aortic Dissection—Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2019
• Aortic Strain Correlates with Elastin Fragmentation in Fibrillin-1 Hypomorphic Mice—Circulation Reports, 2019
• Ultrasound Imaging of the Thoracic and Abdominal Aorta in Mice to Determine Aneurysm Dimensions—Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE, 2019
• Heterogeneity of Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells: A Determinant for Regional Characteristics of Thoracic Aortic—Journal of Translational Internal Medicine, 2018
• Drebrin: a new player in angiotensin II- induced aortopathies—Cardiovascular Research, 2018
• Drebrin: a new player in angiotensin II- —Cardiovascular Research, 2018
  
• Renin-Angiotensin System and Cardiovascular Functions—Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2018

Ying Wang, MD | The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
Project: The role of CD47 in the accumulation of diseased smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis

• Clonally expanding smooth muscle cells promote atherosclerosis by escaping efferocytosis and activating the complement cascade—Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020
• Smooth Muscle Cells Contribute the Majority of Foam Cells in Apolipoprotein E- Deficient Mouse Atherosclerosis—Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2019
• Clonal Smooth Muscle Cell Expansion, Autophagy and Vascular Integrity in Aortic Aneurysm Disease—Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, 2019
  

Mingtao Zhao, DVM, PhD | Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Project: NOTCH Signaling in Human Vascular Development and CADASIL

• Precision medicine for long QT syndrome: Patient-specific iPSCs take the lead—Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, 2023
• Assessment of mitophagy in human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes—Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2022
• Nanocrown electrodes for parallel and robust intracellular recording of cardiomyocytes—Nature communications, 2022
• Probing single ventricle heart defects with patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells and emerging technologies—Birth Defects Research, 2022
  
• Translational potential of hiPSCs in predictive modeling of heart development and disease—Birth Defects Research, 2022
  
• Decoding Genetics of Congenital Heart Disease Using Patient-Derived Induced Pluripotent—Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2021
  
• Generation and Expansion of Human Cardiomyocytes from Patient Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells—Journal of Visualized Experiments: JoVE, 2021
  
• Transcriptome analysis of non human primate- induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in 2D monolayer culture vs. 3D engineered heart tissue—Cardiovascular Research, 2021
• Cardiomyocyte Proliferation and Maturation: Two Sides of the Same Coin for Heart—Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, 2020
  
• Subtype-specific cardiomyocytes for precision medicine: Where are we now?—Stem Cells, 2020
  
• HIF1a Regulates Early Metabolic Changes due to Activation of Innate Immunity in Nuclear Reprogramming—Stem Cell Reports, 2020
  
• Disruption of mesoderm formation during cardiac differentiation due to developmental exposure to 13-cis- retinoic acid—Scientific Reports, 2018