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The Alan Lerner Symposium showcases the breadth and depth of our research enterprise and facilitates our gathering new ideas to pursue for both bench and bedside research. Thank you again for your unwavering support of our young investigators.

2024
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
Charlotte Andersson

Charlotte Andersson, MD, PhD
Member of the Faculty of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Cardiomyopathy in First-Degree Relatives of Patients Presenting With Acute Myocarditis: Prevalence and Prognostic Significance

Huck

Daniel M. Huck, MD, MPH
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Adverse Cardiovascular Events Among Younger and Older Patients Referred for Coronary CTAs: The Mass General Brigham CCTA Registry

Victor Nauffal Portrait

Victor Nauffal, MD, MSc
Clinical Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Fibrotic Crossroads: Unveiling Organ-specific and Shared Pathways in the Tapestry of Multi-Organ Fibrosis

The top three posters from post-doctoral fellows were awarded as follows

FIRST PLACE

Constance Delwarde, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

ADP-Ribosylation in a Mouse Model of Atherosclerosis: A Potential Novel Link Between Dyslipidemia and Inflammation in Cardiovascular Disease

Mentor: Masanori Aikawa, MD

SECOND PLACE

Erik H. Andrews, MD, MPH
Clinical Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

T-Wave Abnormalities Predict Mortality in Newly Diagnosed Systemic Light Chain Amyloidosis

Mentors: Usha Tedrow, MD and Sharmila Dorbala, MD

THIRD PLACE

Aspasia Tzani, MD, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

FAM222A, Part of the BET-Regulated Basal Endothelial Transcriptome, Is a Novel Determinant of Endothelial Biology and Angiogenesis

Mentor: Jorge Plutzky, MD

2023
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
David Berg, MD, MPHAssistant Professor of Medicine Email*

David Berg, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Assessment of Atherothrombotic Risk in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Alexander Blood

Alexander J. Blood, MD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Diabetes Remote Intervention to improVe Use of Evidence-Based Medications Study: A Randomized Evaluation of a Team-Based Remote Education and Medication Management Program to Reduce CV and Kidney Risk.

Vivian Lee, PhDInstructor in Medicine	Email*

Vivian Lee, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Variant-to-Function of Coronary Artery Disease: Identifying Novel Regulation of the Notch Pathway in Endothelial Cells

The top three posters from post-doctoral fellows were awarded as follows

FIRST PLACE

Shruti Rawal, PhD
Research Associate in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Regulation of Succinate Signaling and Immunometabolism in Diabetes-associated Atherosclerosis by miR-369-3p

Mentor: Mark W. Feinberg, MD

SECOND PLACE

Three ways tie!

Rachel Cahalane, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Searching for the Mechanisms of Accelerated Calcification in Bioprosthetic Heart Valves

Mentor: Elena Aikawa, MD, PhD

Sarvesh Chelvanambi, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

HIV-Nef Extracellular Vesicles Modulate Macrophage Heterogeneity to Promote Atherosclerosis

Mentor: Masanori Aikawa, MD

Shi Fang, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Functional Characterization of a CCM2 Mutation Associated with Coronary Artery Disease

Mentor: Rajat Gupta, MD

THIRD PLACE

Maria A. Pabon, MD
Clinical Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Influence of Background Medical Therapy on Efficacy and Safety of Dapagliflozin in Patients With Heart Failure With Improved Ejection Fraction in the DELIVER Trial

Mentor: Scott D. Solomon, MD

2022
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
Jonathan W. Cunningham, MD, MPHAssistant Professor of MedicineEmail*

Jonathan W. Cunningham, MD, MPH
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Aptamer Proteomics for Biomarker Discovery in Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction

Laurel Lee

Laurel Y. Lee, MD, DPHIL
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

T-cell-mediated Endothelial Metabolic Reprogramming in Coronary Artery Disease

Brittany N. Weber, MD, PhD Assistant Professor in MedicineEmail*

Brittany Weber, MD, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Association Between Reduction in Inflammation and Change in Cardiovascular Risk: Results From the LiiRA Study.

2021
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
Yuri Kim, MD, PhDAssistant Professor of Medicine, HMSAssociate Physician, BWHEmail
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Specialty/interests:

Cardiovascular Genetics
Cardiomyopathy
Genomics
Heart Transplant
Transplant Mechanical Circulatory Support

Yuri Kim, MD, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Intron-Mediated Enhancer of TTN, Encoding Titin, Regulates Sarcomere Formation and Function

Nicholas Marston

Nicholas Marston, MD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Predictive Power and Value of a CAD Polygenic Risk Score in Primary Prevention Based on Age and Clinical Risk

Andriy Samokhin

Andriy Samokhin, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

NEDD9 Is a Novel Anti-Fibrotic Therapeutic Target and Biomarker in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

The top three posters from post-doctoral fellows were awarded as follows

FIRST PLACE

Jingshu Chen, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Isolation and Primary Culture of Murine Aortic Cells for Atherosclerosis Research

Mentor: Mark W. Feinberg, MD

SECOND PLACE

Rulin Zhuang, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

KLF10 Deficiency in CD4+ T Cells Exacerbate Angiotensin II-Induced Perivascular Fibrosis

Mentor: Mark W. Feinberg, MD

THIRD PLACE

Wandi Zhu, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Piezo1 Mediates a Novel Mechano-Thrombotic Pathway in Cardiometabolic Disease

Mentor: Calum A. MacRae, MD, PhD

2020
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
Demler Olga

Olga Demler, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Heterogeneous Effects of Omega-3 (n-3) Downstream Fatty Acids (FAs) and Oxylipins on Risk of Cardiovascular Disease: Results of Two Metabolomics Substudies of the Randomized Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL)

Shashi Kant, PhDAssistant Professor of Medicine	skant1@bwh.harvard.edu*

Shashi Kant, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Neural JNK3 Regulates Blood Flow Recovery After Hindlimb Ischemia in Mice via an Egr1/Creb1 Axis

Muthiah Vaduganathan, MD, MPH Instructor in MedicineEmail*

Muthiah Vaduganathan, MD, MPH
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Empagliflozin Delays Progression to Insulin Initiation or Intensification in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: Findings from the EMPA-REG OUTCOME Trial

The top three posters from post-doctoral fellows were awarded as follows

FIRST PLACE

Tianxiao Liu

Tianxiao Liu,PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Eosinophils Improve Cardiac Functions After Myocardial Infarction

SECOND PLACE

Liu Xin

Xin Liu,PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Eosinophils Protect Mice From Angiotensin-II Perfusion-Induced Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm

THIRD PLACE

Xian Zhang, PhD

Xian Zhang, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Divergent Roles of Two IL18 Receptors in Brown Adipose Tissue Thermogenesis and White Adipose Tissue Glucose Metabolism and Insulin Sensitivity

 

2019
Young Investigator Award Recipients, in alphabetical order
Rajat Gupta, MD

Rajat Gupta, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Single Cell Analysis of the Normal Mouse Aorta Reveals Functionally Distinct Endothelial Cell Populations.

Arvind Pandey, MD

Arvind Pandey, MD
Instructor in Medicine
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

CD70 is Essential for Protein Expression in Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase.

Sasha Singh, PhD

Sasha Singh, PhD
Instructor in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Insights into Protein Metabolism Heterogeneity Challenge the Reverse Cholesterol Transport Theory: A Novel Mass Spectrometry Platform for Metabolic Tracer Studies in the Clinic

The top three posters from post-doctoral fellows were awarded as follows

FIRST PLACE

Sio (Henry) Cheng, PhD

Sio (Henry) Cheng, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Identification of MicroRNAs in Human and Mouse Diabetic Critical Limb Ischemia.

SECOND PLACE

Patricia Borck, PhD

Patricia Borck, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Inhibition of BRD4 Prevents the Misexpression of Mesenchymal and Fibrotic Markers during Endothelial to Mesenchymal Transition.

THIRD PLACE

Livia Passos, PhD

Livia Passos, PhD
Research Fellow in Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Proteins Associated With Sex Hormone Receptor Activity Contribute to Heart Valve Disease.

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