A former All-American Division I athlete, Kevin joined our group while a medical student at Stanford University having previously studied the molecular basis of inflammation and phagocyte biology.  During his time with us, Kevin developed an interest in ‘big data’, bioinformatics and genetic epidemiology and was awarded a highly competitive Gates-Cambridge Scholarship.  Since receiving his MPhil at the University of Cambridge, Kevin has become an expert in Mendelian Randomization and other advanced ‘omics approaches.  He is currently pursuing his clinical training at the University of Pennsylvania.  Kevin was recently awarded the prestigious Holman Fellowship following a series of high impact publications in journals such as JCO, JACC, Diabetes, and Circ Research and intends to pursue a career in academic medicine at the end of his post-doctoral training.

Kelly joined our group after pursuing a PhD at the University of Kentucky with Lisa Cassis and Alan Daugherty, where she studied the role of angiotensin signaling in cardiometabolic tissue and its relation to insulin signaling, obesity and cardiovascular risk.  During her time with us, she studied the role of cardiovascular risk loci on vascular disease and was awarded a Vascular Biology T32 grant while co-authoring studies in JCI, Circ Research and Vascular Medicine.  After Stanford, she received a post-doctoral training position at the University of Denver, where she studied vascular aging, and is now pursuing a career in medical writing.  Kelly is a fitness enthusiast and triathlete and has thrived as a long distance trail runner in the mountains of Colorado.

Will came to Stanford for his cardiovascular fellowship training after receiving his MD and PhD at the University of Alabama.  Having a background in the molecular effects of hyperinsulinemia on diabetes and inflammation, Will was recruited to our Vascular K12 program and participated in advanced training in Vascular Medicine and translational trials focused on vascular regeneration and PAD genomics/metabolomics.  After leaving Stanford, Will obtained a competitive fellowship at Yale University and plans to start his independent academic career as a junior faculty later this year.

Henry “Hank” Cheng came to Stanford while a medical school student at UCLA after having received a prestigious Sarnoff Fellowship award.  At Stanford, Henry studied the 9p21 cardiovascular risk locus and the molecular genetics surrounding the risk allele.  After returning to medical school, Henry first obtained a highly competitive residency position at John’s Hopkins University in Internal Medicine and currently is a cardiovascular medicine research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

After training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Peter was sent to Stanford by the Singaporean government to take advanced clinical and research training in Vascular Medicine.  During his time with us, Peter became involved in the NIH-funded Genetic Determinants of Peripheral Artery Disease (GenePAD) Study at Stanford and published a number of articles investigating predictors of latent and undiagnosed PAD.  Peter has now returned to the faculty of the National University of Singapore where he is an Associate Consultant and director of their Vascular Medicine efforts.

Roxanne’s remarkable story began when she transferred to Stanford University from a community college in Florida, after having immigrating to the United States from Peru to pursue her dream of higher education.  While an undergraduate at Stanford, she joined our cardiovascular research team to learn molecular genetics as part of her honors thesis project.  In addition to receiving an AHA Predoctoral fellowship and a Barry Goldwater scholarship, Roxanne had a very productive time within our Division and co-authored a number of papers in journals such as PLoS Genetics, American Journal of Cardiology, JVS and Circulation CV Quality and Outcomes.  Since graduating, Roxanne has become a U.S. Citizen and has continued to pursue her love of medical genetics, having worked at Complete Genomics and now at Omicia, where she focuses on next-gen sequencing technology.

After performing two research fellowship programs at the NIH, Scott came as a visiting scholar to our laboratory while a medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  In his time with us, Scott gained exposure to the basics of vascular biology research and worked with mouse models of aneurysm disease.  Since returning to New York, Scott has graduated from medical school and is currently an Internal Medicine resident at the University of Michigan.

Jessie joined our laboratory while a high school senior to gain exposure to biomedical research.  During her time with us, she worked with a team studying neo-angiogenesis and learned the fundamentals of RNA expression analysis and mouse models of vascular disease.  Because of her contributions, she was named as a co-author on a publication in Circulation Research published in 2016.  Jessie has since been admitted to Stanford University where she is currently completing her undergraduate studies.  Jessie remains a world traveler and continues to study abroad, most recently in mainland China.

Noah grew up in Los Altos, California, where he attended Los Altos High School. At Los Altos High School, outside of academics, Noah wrestled at the varsity level as a freshman, played varsity baseball, photographed for the school newspaper, The Talon, and sang in the school’s choral group, the Main Street Singers. During the summer of 2014, Noah participated in the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research program (SIMR).   He spent 8 weeks in Dr. Stephen Montgomery’s lab where he studied the role of exosomes in transmitting rescue signals to previously irradiated cells. Since that time, Noah has spent his summers working with our team, learning the fundamentals of atherosclerosis and cell-fate determination in vascular biology.  Noah is currently a student at Haverford College and is studying Chemistry and Genetics.  In his free time, Noah enjoys singing and playing volleyball with his friends.

Kathryn is a Canadian who completed her PhD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. Her thesis focused on determining the mechanism behind the beneficial role of TGF-beta on enhancing intestinal epithelial barrier function and protection from EHEC O157:H7 infection. Kathryn went to medical school at the University of Toronto (Canada) where she continued to publish on a wide variety of topics, including neurosurgery, ethics in global surgery, and ischemia-reperfusion, having been awarded competitive Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowships during this time. Kathryn recently finished a visiting fellowship at Stanford University, following which returned to Canada for chief year in Vascular Surgery at McMaster. While in the Leeper lab, Kathryn became fascinated with smooth muscle lineage tracing in atherosclerotic plaques and is interested in the immune phenomena that regulate this process. Outside the lab and operating room, Kathryn enjoys trekking in remote places, hiking with her dog and husband, and riding her bike.

Dan is an incoming Postdoctoral Researcher. He grew up in Syracuse, NY and completed his B.S. in Biology at the University of Albany, State University of New York. He then received his Ph.D. in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology from Purdue University where he studied the role of the transcription factor, Mist1, in pancreatic homeostasis and cancer development in the lab of Dr. Stephen Konieczny. Dan then obtained a Postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. K Craig Kent at the University of Wisconsin – Madison to investigate the role of TGFβ/Smad3 signaling in vascular smooth muscle cell de-differentiation and cross-talk with the Wnt signaling pathway. His over-arching research interests are in the signaling pathways and transcriptional mechanisms that regulate disease processes. In his free-time, Dan enjoys biking, running, and watching sports or movies.

Norna is a fourth year medical student at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. This fall she will join Leeper Lab to pursue research for her Degree Project in Medicine. Her main focus will be studying the role of CDKN2B in peripheral artery disease and vascular neo-angiogenesis. Previously she has been a member of the George Klein Laszlo Szekely Group, her studies mainly focusing on Cancer Associated Fibroblasts and their role in tumor suppression. Academically, Norna has an interest in applying a global and multicultural perspective on medicine and translational research. Last year she studied global health under Professor Hans Rosling with field studies conducted in Uganda. During this spring she did a surgical internship at Taizhu Enze Medical Center, Zhejiang in China. In her spare time she enjoys travelling, skiing, and diving.

Margaret joined our research team while an undergraduate at Stanford. She worked on the Genetic Determinants of Peripheral Artery Disease (GenePAD) Study and co-authored several papers in journals including Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, American Journal of Cardiology, and Journal of Vascular Surgery. After graduating, she went on to attend medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, and is currently an Internal Medicine resident at Columbia University.

Pavlos is in his 5th year as a resident for Vascular Surgery at the Department of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Hospital rechts der Isar, Technical University of Munich, Germany. Before that, he studied Medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. He joins our team as a postdoctoral fellow investigating the role of CHI3L1/YKL-40 and plaque vulnerability in carotid atherosclerosis. For that he received a travel grant from the German Research Foundation. 

He is half Greek (father), half Argentinean (mother) and in his free-time he spends his time with triathlon, kitesurfing, skiing or playing the piano.