Alumni at Meetings

Dr. Luo was selected as a finalist and delivered an oral presentation at the 2025 Elaine W. Raines Early Career Investigator Award Competition during Scientific Sessions. He presented research on the intersection between cancer and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Luo said, "It was an honor to share our findings with the broader cardiovascular research community."

 

Tadashi Yoshida, PhD, was a dedicated cardiovascular researcher specializing in skeletal muscle physiology and improving the management of congestive heart failure. His work was continuously supported by the American Heart Association, which brought many of his scientific ideas to life. He attended the Scientific Sessions every year, eager to exchange ideas and spark meaningful discussions. Tadashi passed away last summer. His final presentation was organized and delivered by his longtime colleague, Mr. Charles Seth Lott.

Submitted by Yilin Yoshida, PhD, MPH, FAHA, to whom we extend our heartfelt sympathy.

 

Dr. Stanislas, physician turned statistician and health data analyst at Johns Hopkins, joined the Heart Association-funded SAFE HEART Women Study to improve cardiovascular health among women. A presenter at Sessions, he presented on the team's work where they examined risk perception in 139 reproductive-age women using Life’s Essential 8 framework. More than half underestimated their cardiovascular risk, despite poor health metrics. Underestimation was strongly associated with low health literacy, racial/ethnic minority status, and multiple social risks, even after adjusting for demographics and psychological factors - highlighting a critical barrier to prevention, which women cannot act on when they do not recognize the risks. The team is now developing targeted community interventions to raise awareness among vulnerable groups. 

 

Dr. Dai studies how immune-vascular interactions drive pulmonary vascular remodeling in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), focusing on crosstalk among macrophages, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells. Using molecular, cellular, genetic, and single‑cell approaches, he investigates a pro‑PAH macrophage subtype that disrupts the endothelial barrier and promotes smooth muscle activation. His goal is to define mechanisms sustaining remodeling and identify new therapeutic targets. 

 

Selected for the George Layman Duff Memorial Lecture Series, Dr. Singh, a research scientist and translational specialist in vascular biology at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, presented on her goal to identify new therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular disease by uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying endothelial cell contributions to plaque formation and resolution. "Career Development Award support from the Heart Association has been pivotal in advancing this work."

 

Dr. Sobrano Fais presented work from his Postdoctoral Fellowship with Dr. Tim Lahm at Sessions, exploring how sex hormones modulate NLRP3 signaling and its impact on right ventricular failure in pulmonary hypertension. He is gaining expertise in hemodynamics and inflammatory signaling and has submitted two first-author manuscripts on calcium signaling and oxidative stress in NLRP3 activity. Dr. Fais’s long-term goal is to become an independent investigator studying developmental pathways and gene expression alterations in human disease.

 

With Postdoctoral Fellowship support from the Heart Association, Dr. Yuan joined Dr. Scott Damrauer’s lab at the University of Pennsylvania to study epigenetic mechanisms in abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), an area with limited prior research. Their work identified potential causal DNA methylation markers, clarified mechanistic pathways, and developed a methylation-based risk score that enhances prediction of AAA. These findings provide new directions for understanding AAA etiology and improving clinical risk stratification.