Mahmoud Abdelbary
My research interest is the contribution of renal cell death in the control and development of hypertension in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats.
Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Sullivan
Kasey Belanger
My research interests are sex differences of the pathophysiology of hypertension. My current work focuses on better understanding the contribution of the immune system, and Tregs in particular, on blood pressure development and control between males and females. I am also interested in examining sex differences in the cerebrovascular and cognitive consequences within my hypertension model.
Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Sullivan
Shinjini Chowdhury
My research interests revolve around the role of aldosterone in obesity-associated hypertension. My current project focuses on elucidating the signaling pathways involved in the regulation of aldosterone production in response to very low-density lipoprotein and sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor activation.
Mentor: Dr. Wendy Bollag
Casey Derella
My overall research interest is to better understand how various diseases impact the vascular health of humans and contribute to cardiovascular disease. My current work focuses on better understanding the factors contributing to microvascular and skeletal muscle dysfunction in people with type 1 diabetes.
Mentor: Dr. Ryan Harris
Elinor Mannon
My research interests include inflammation and chronic disease, such as hypertension and type II diabetes. My current work focuses on understanding the immunologic and metabolic effects of sodium bicarbonate therapy, as well as elucidating the signaling mechanism of the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway.
Mentor: Dr. Paul O'Connor
Yue Pan
My research focus is on determining whether specific circulating leukocyte subpopulations and their activation status could serve as markers of the chronic, low-grade inflammatory response to obesity status, and thereby, of obesity-associated CVD & T2D risk in Caucasians and African Americans. My current study is to explore whether ALPL, a gene encoding neutrophil alkaline phosphatase and showing significance changes in DNA methylation, gene expression and proteomics in response to obesity, may serve as a potential biomarker for neutrophil activation and mediate obesity's effect on CVD risk.
Mentor Dr. Xiaoling Wang
Lindsey Ramirez
I am interested in the impact that early life stressors have on long term cardiovascular, renal, and cognitive health. I am currently investigating the effect of low oxygen during the first week of life and how that insult can increase likelihood of hypertension in later life. My newest project is determining whether a maternal high fat diet will produce a pro-inflammatory profile in the offspring and increase likelihood of hypertension in later life. Soon, I would like to do some behavioral studies to determine the impact of these stressors on cognition.
Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Sullivan
Sarah Ray
My research interests include the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury (AKI) and the associated long-term sequelae. My current work focuses on better understanding the factors which contribute to the development of vascular congestion following ischemia-reperfusion in both males and females, as well as the potential role of vascular congestion in the development of hypertension and chronic kidney disease after AKI.
Mentor: Dr. Paul O'Connor
Yanna Tian
My overall research interest is to better understand vascular dysfunction in aging and disease conditions, such as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. My current project to investigate the mechanisms that underlie the excess release of a protein shedding enzyme (ADAM17) and how the increased shedding of specific proteins could alter vascular function in aging.
Mentor: Dr. Zsolt Bagi
