Great fun at the annual Leeper Lab Christmas party!

Congratulations to Vascular Medicine fellowship graduate Tom Alsaigh on being selected in the second cohort of the Vascular Medicine Next Generation Editorial Board. We are excited for this excellent opportunity to contribute to the Vascular Medicine community.  

Dr. Nazish Sayed, Assistant Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery and The Stanford Cardiovascular Institute has received his 2nd NIH-NHLBI R01 grant.  This ~ $2M grant for 5-years “Unraveling the Role of Endothelium in Chemotherapy-induced Cardiotoxicity” will investigate the impact of chemotherapy on the vasculature and what role does the endothelium play in imparting cardiovascular dysfunction.

Congratulation to Leeper Lab Postdoctoral fellow Lingfeng Luo, Ph.D. for having been selected as a top finalist in the Society for Vascular Medicine (SVM) Young Investigator Award, for his abstract "Efficient suppression of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and intimal hyperplasia by targeting phosphodiesterase 10A". He will be presenting his research at the SVM 2021 Scientific Sessions on September  9-11, 2021.

The YIA award is sponsored annually by the Society for Vascular Medicine in honor of Jay D. Coffman, MD, (1928-2006), distinguished internist and researcher of vascular medicine and clinical cardiology. The award committee will select from all the abstracts submitted by young investigators. The top finalists make oral presentations during the Jay D. Coffman Young Investigator Presentation on the SVM annual meeting.

Dr. Luo's research relates to his main thesis project about studying a potential novel therapeutic target (phosphodiesterase 10A/PDE10A) of occlusive vascular disease. We have proofs to support that based on animal models, a human organ bath model, cellular functional assays, and signal transduction pathways.

We are excited to announce that Dr. Nick Leeper, will be awarded the Jeffrey M. Hoeg Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology Award for Basic Science and Clinical Research.  Dr. Leeper will receive his award during the Vascular Discovery: From Genes to Medicine Scientific Sessions 2021. 

The Jeffrey M. Hoeg Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Award for Basic Science and Clinical Research was established in 1999. The award recognizes an established investigator in the prime of his/her career who has made an outstanding contribution to furthering understanding of the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis and/or the development of treatment strategies for its prevention through basic science and clinical research efforts.

This award honors the memory of Jeffrey M. Hoeg, MD, chief of the Section of Cell Biology within the Molecular Disease Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH. He was an extraordinary research scientist and physician who, in the prime of his career, was working in the field of lipoprotein metabolism and atherosclerosis. Dr. Hoeg died in July 1998 after a courageous battle with cancer.

Congratulations to Leeper lab alumna, Jessie Dalman, on being accepted to the University of Michigan Medical School.  Best wishes to Jessie as she embarks on this exciting new journey!

Caitlin Bell, MD is a recipeint of the 2021 Damon Ruynon Physician-Scientist Training Award, under the mentorship of Nick Leeper, MD and Irving L. Weissman, MD.  Congratulations to Caitlin on this prestigious award.  We look forward to your research.  

Damon Runyon Press Release and EurekAlert

Sendoff party for graduating post-doc Kai Jarr, who returns to Germany to begin his faculty appointment as a translational cardiologist at Heidelberg University.  Congratulations to Kai on a hugely successful time with us and best wishes as he establishes his own independent research laboratory.

Congratulations to lab alumni, Ricky and Alyssa, who both matched their top choice for residency after medical school graduation.   Ricky (internal medicine) and Alyssa (vascular surgery) are both heading to MGH and we wish them the very best as they enter the next phase of their careers!

Dr. Nick Leeper is interviewed by HuffPost for a Heart Health Month article on "7 Types of Chest Pain You Should Never Ignore".  Dr. Leeper explains the type of chest pain physicians are most concerned. Read the full article here. 

Congratulations to the Leeper lab and colleagues for publishing in the NEJM the first human evidence that promoting “efferocytosis” (the phagocytic removal of diseased and dying cells) may have a beneficial effect on atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Using PET/CT scans from an ongoing cancer trial, the investigators were able to retrospectively analyze vascular inflammation in the arteries of subjects before and after treatment with an anti-CD47 antibody. They found that blockade of this key so-called ‘don’t eat me’ molecule was associated with reduced inflammation in the carotid arteries. These findings are consistent with the groups previously published studies in mice (Nature, 2016), and may pave the way for prospective cardiovascular studies to determine if ‘macrophage checkpoint inhibition’ has the potential to become a new therapy to prevent heart attack and stroke. 

Congratulations to Alyssa Flores for having her article named a Top 10 manuscript for 2020 by Healthinnovations.

Bittersweet send off party for star post-doc, Ying Wang, as she completes her time at Stanford and prepares to start her tenure-track Assistant Professorship at the University of British Columbia.  We wish Ying all the best as she embarks on what we know will be an amazing career full of exciting discoveries!