Innovator Awards feature collaborations between VMI and HVI faculty members. The projects represent cutting-edge science and highlight how the synergy between VMI and HVI faculty will open new and exciting areas of research.

What: A $25k, one-year seed funding for an innovative collaborative project with strong potential to lead to extramural funding

Who: Project must be a study involving a VMI faculty member working in collaboration with a HVI faculty member

Awarded Grants

Summer 2018

• Imad Al Ghouleh, PhD, Charlie McTiernan, PhD, & Marc Simon, MD, MS, FACC
  “Mechanistic Insights into Right Ventricular Dysfunction”
• Yvonne Eisele, PhD & Prem Soman, MD, PhD
  “A pilot study to define the target of 99mTc PYP binding and characterize TTR aggregate subtypes in comparison with TTR neuropathy and AL amyloidosis”
• Partha Dutta, DVM, PhD, Dennis McNamara, MD, and Charlie McTiernan, PhD
  “NK Cells in Peripartum Cardiomyopathy”

Summer 2017

• Partha Dutta, DVM, PhD (VMI) and Catalin Toma, MD (HVI)
  Role of visceral adipose tissue macrophage apoptosis in insulin resistance after myocardial

• Stephen Chan, MD, PhD (VMI) and Cecilia Lo, PhD
  Investigating hereditary TBX5 haploinsufficiency as a genetic cause of PH in congenital heart disease

• Enrico Novelli, MD, MS (VMI) and Liza Villanueva, MD (HVI)
  Novel imaging strategies of cerebrovascular dysfunction in sickle cell disease

• Adam Straub, PhD (VMI) and Prem Soman, MD, PhD (HVI)
  A Pilot Study to Assess the Prevalence and Determinants of Global Myocardial Flow Reserve Abnormalities, and Its Association with Impaired Vasoreactivity and the Cyb5R3 T117S Gene variant In African –American Women with Chest Pain Referred for Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

 Summer 2016

• Cynthia St. Hilaire, PhD (VMI) and Thomas Gleason, MD (HVI)
  Role Of Mechanical Stress In Ectonucleotidase Activity And Adenosine Receptor Signaling In Calcific Aortic Valve Disease

• Iain Scott, PhD (VMI) and Charles McTiernan, PhD (HVI)
  Adropin: A Potential Treatment for Mitochondrial Metabolic Dysfunction in Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

• John Pacella, MD, MS (HVI), François Yu, PhD (HVI) and Patrick Pagano, PhD (VMI)
  Sonoreperfusion for Microvascular Obstruction: Effects of Nox Inhibition

• Dennis Bruemmer, MD (VMI) and Marc Simon, MD (HVI)
  Endothelial Cell Telomerase Function in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

April 2015

• Beth Roman, PhD (VMI) and Stephen Cook, MD, FACC (HVI)
  ALK1 signaling in development of superior cavopulmonary anastomosis-associated pulmonary arteriovenous malformations

March 2015

• David Schwartzman, MD (HVI) and Sruti Shiva, PhD (VMI)
  Relationships between atrial fibrillation and the platelet mitochondrial bioenergetic profile

• Marc Simon, MD (HVI) and Imad al Ghouleh, PhD (VMI)
  The role of EBP50 in right heart hypertrophy and dysfunction in pulmonary hypertension-induced pressure overload

February 2015

• Jeff Isenberg, MD, MPH (VMI) and Guy Salama, PhD (HVI)
  Novel Pathways of Aberrant Ca2+ Dynamics in Heart Failure

October 2014

• Adam Straub, PhD (VMI) and David Schwartzman, MD (HVI)
  Atrial Fibrillation from an Endothelial Perspective

August 2014

• Greg Kato, MD (VMI) and Joao Cavlacante, MD (HVI)
  Sleep Disorders, Diastolic Function, and Metabolic Syndrome in Sickle Cell Disease

• Elena Goncharova, PhD (VMI) and John Gorcsan, MD (HVI)
  Quantitative Echocardiography in a Rat Model of Pulmonary Hypertension

• Edith Tzeng, MD (VMI) and Kang Kim, PhD (HVI)
  Ultrasensitive Thermal Strain Imaging to Prevent Unnecessary Carotid Intervention and Strokes

June 2014

• Guy Salama, PhD/David Schwartzman, MD (HVI) and Ana Mora, MD (VMI)
  Relaxin: A transformative therapy for atrial fibrillation

• Marc Simon, MD (HVI) and Sruti Shiva, PhD (VMI)
  Mitochondrial function in RV failure

• Matthew Muldoon, MD/J. Richard Jennings, PhD (HVI) and Adam Straub, PhD (VMI)
  The role of hemopressin in reversing essential hypertension