Team

Annette Peters, PhD

European Coordinator

Director, Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Munich
Professor and Chair of Epidemiology, LMU Munich
Helmholtz Munich

Dr. Annette Peters is an internationally recognized epidemiologist and leader in environmental and cardiovascular health research. She directs the Institute of Epidemiology at Helmholtz Munich and serves as Professor and Chair of Epidemiology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. Her work pioneered the field linking ambient air pollution to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, including the first evidence of systemic inflammatory responses to air pollution. Dr. Peters is Principal Investigator of the German National Cohort (NAKO), following more than 200,000 participants, and has led the KORA cohort for over a decade. Her research now extends to climate change, the exposome, and molecular epidemiology. She is a Highly Cited Researcher, Fellow of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and serves on multiple international advisory boards including the WHO Scientific Advisory Group on Air Pollution, Energy & Health.

Nick Leeper, MD

North American Coordinator

Professor of Surgery and Medicine
Chief of Vascular Medicine and Director of Vascular Research, Stanford University

Dr. Nicholas Leeper is a physician-scientist specializing in vascular biology and translational cardiovascular medicine. As Chief of Vascular Medicine and Director of Vascular Research at Stanford, his laboratory focuses on immune mechanisms underlying atherosclerosis, cancer-associated cardiovascular disease, and environmental exposures such as micro- and nanoplastics. He is internationally recognized for seminal discoveries in efferocytosis and CD47 biology, leading to first-in-class therapeutic strategies. Dr. Leeper has extensive experience leading large multidisciplinary consortia, including the PlaqOmics Leducq Network, and directs Stanford’s NIH-funded T32 training program in vascular disease. His work spans human genetics, computational biology, and clinical translation.

Chiara Giannarelli, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Cardiology and Pathology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Dr. Chiara Giannarelli is a cardiovascular immunologist whose research integrates systems biology, single-cell genomics, and translational pathology to define immune mechanisms driving atherosclerosis. She is a tenured Associate Professor of Cardiology and Pathology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and an Associate Editor for Circulation. Dr. Giannarelli’s work has reshaped understanding of immune cell heterogeneity in human atherosclerotic plaques and cardiometabolic disease. She has led multiple NIH- and AHA-funded collaborative research programs and actively contributes to national and international networks focused on inflammation, vascular biology, and environmental risk factors. 

Matthias Mann, PhD

Director, Department of Proteomics and Signal Transduction, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry

Dr. Matthias Mann is a world leader in mass spectrometry–based proteomics and systems biology. As Director at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, he has developed foundational technologies—including MaxQuant and Deep Visual Proteomics—that have transformed biological and biomedical research. His work enables single-cell, spatial, and quantitative proteomics across cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegeneration, and global health. Dr. Mann is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and recipient of numerous international awards. He has led large multidisciplinary consortia funded by the EU, Gates Foundation, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. 

Gerard Pasterkamp, MD, PhD

Professor of Experimental Cardiology
Focus Area Chair, Circulatory Health, UMC Utrecht

Dr. Gerard Pasterkamp is a leader in experimental cardiology and human vascular pathology, with a career dedicated to understanding plaque biology and heterogeneity in atherosclerotic disease. He has authored over 600 peer-reviewed publications and coordinated numerous national and international consortia, including the transatlantic PlaqOmics Leducq program. His work integrates human tissue biobanking, genomics, and translational imaging to redefine the concept of the vulnerable plaque. Dr. Pasterkamp has extensive experience in public–private partnerships, mentoring over 60 PhD trainees, and shaping European cardiovascular research strategy.

Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP

Jim G. Hendrick Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health
Vice Chair for Research, NYU

Dr. Leonardo Trasande is a pediatrician, environmental health scientist, and policy expert whose research quantifies the health and economic impacts of environmental chemical exposures across the life course. He is Vice Chair for Research in Pediatrics at NYU and directs major NIH- and NIEHS-funded programs, including leadership roles within the ECHO consortium. Dr. Trasande’s work has been instrumental in establishing links between endocrine-disrupting chemicals and cardiometabolic disease, obesity, and mortality. He brings deep expertise in environmental epidemiology, health economics, and policy translation to multidisciplinary collaborations.

Lei Stanley Qi, PhD

Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University

Dr. Lei Stanley Qi is an internationally recognized leader in genome engineering, synthetic biology, and CRISPR-based technologies. He is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University and a core investigator at Sarafan ChEM-H. Dr. Qi received his interdisciplinary training in physics, bioengineering, and systems biology at Tsinghua University and the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, before launching an independent research program that has fundamentally transformed the field of gene regulation. 

Dr. Qi is best known for inventing CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPR activation (CRISPRa), foundational technologies now widely used across biomedical research. His laboratory develops next-generation CRISPR platforms for live-cell imaging, spatial transcriptomics, and genome-wide screening, with applications spanning neuroscience, cancer biology, and cardiovascular research. His work has been recognized with numerous prestigious honors, including the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, NSF CAREER Award, Pew Biomedical Scholarship, Sloan Fellowship, and appointment as a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator. Dr. Qi has extensive experience leading large, collaborative research initiatives and translating CRISPR technologies toward clinical application, including first-in-human trials.

Kai-Uwe Jarr, MD

Senior Physician, Department of Cardiology, Heidelberg University Hospital 
Junior Faculty (Early Stage Investigator), Heidelberg University

Dr. Kai-Uwe Jarr is a physician–scientist with advanced clinical training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology and specialized research expertise in cardiovascular immunology. His work focuses on the mechanisms of sterile inflammation and immune checkpoint regulation in cardiovascular disease, with the goal of translating immunomodulatory strategies into novel therapies. Following his medical and doctoral training at Heidelberg University, where he graduated summa cum laude, Dr. Jarr completed a postdoctoral fellowship in vascular biology at Stanford University under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas J. Leeper. There, he contributed to seminal discoveries demonstrating the therapeutic potential of innate immune checkpoint inhibition in atherosclerosis, resulting in publications in The New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, and Nature Cardiovascular Research. 

As an independent investigator at Heidelberg University, Dr. Jarr leads a growing research program integrating immunology, vascular biology, and advanced imaging to define immune activation signatures in cardiovascular disease and after immunotherapy. His work is supported by substantial competitive funding from the German Research Foundation, Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, and national cardiovascular research programs. Clinically, he serves as a Senior Physician in Cardiology, maintaining a strong translational link between bench and bedside.

Hauke Horstmann, MD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Cardiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Vittorio Albergamo, PhD

Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Director, NYU Langone’s Environmental Exposure & Analytical Chemistry Laboratory

Dr. Vittorio Albergamo is an environmental analytical chemist who develops methods to characterize human exposure to anthropogenic contaminants, including chemicals and micro- and nanoplastics. He earned his PhD at the University of Amsterdam, where he investigated known and unknown organic chemicals in aquatic environments and drinking water, and subsequently completed postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the fate of microplastics in marine systems. At NYU, he develops and applies methods to quantify emerging contaminants, such as pesticides, plastic-derived chemicals, PFAS, and plastic particles, in human biospecimens and environmental media, supporting epidemiologic studies. He also directs NYU Langone’s Environmental Exposure and Analytical Chemistry Core, which provides state-of-the-art analysis of diverse chemical classes for collaborative research programs across the institution.

Natalia Eberhardt, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Division of Cardiology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Juyong Brian Kim, MD

Assistant Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine

Dr. Kim is a physician-scientist whose academic path reflects a longstanding interest in integrating quantitative science with biology and medicine. He developed an early passion for mathematics and chemistry while attending high school in Korea and the United Kingdom, which led him to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

His current research interests are in 1) resolving the mechanism of tobacco/e-cigarette and pollution derived adverse cardiovascular effects, and 2) in deciphering the gene-environment interactions that confer protection or susceptibility to these environmental pollution derived heart disease.

Yoko Kojima, MD, PhD

Research Scientist

Yoko holds an MD and a PhD degree in Molecular Biology from Kobe University in Japan.  She has performed post-doctoral research training programs at both Stanford and Yale University where she focused on pathological vascular conditions such as restenosis, atherosclerosis and molecular pathways relevant to smooth muscle cell dysfunction. She is now focused on defining the vascular biology of pathways responsible for heart disease and leads efforts focused on translating genome-wide significant associations into mouse models of human vascular disease. In particular, she studies the relationship of ‘efferocytosis’ (Greek for carrying the dead to the grave) to the 9p21 locus, and how orchestrated phagocytosis may relate to the accumulation of apoptotic debris in the atherosclerotic core. 

Anna-Lena Bruggner

Anna-Lena is a biologist focused on the intersection of immunology, atherosclerosis, and environmental cardiology. She balances her scientific research with a strong commitment to socially impactful volunteer work and possesses “unique expertise” in Nicaraguan Midas cichlids.

Kaylin Palm

PhD Candidate University Medical Center Utrecht

Kaylin Palm is a fourth-year PhD candidate studying transcriptomic and proteomic profiles in atherosclerosis. Her research focuses on modelling patient treatment responses by integrating drug-induced expression profiles with human plaque transcriptomic data. As part of her PhD, she developed a predictive model to estimate drug responses following in-silico treatment with established therapies, such as Colchicine.

Michal Mokry, MD, PhD

Associate Professor at University Medical Center Utrecht

Dr. Mokry has expertise in human atherosclerosis, multi-omics, and patient stratification using large biobanks of diseased vascular tissue. His work integrates transcriptomics, genetics, and histopathology to dissect heterogeneity in plaque biology and link molecular mechanisms to clinical phenotypes and outcomes. Within the PARADIGM network, he will contribute human tissue–based analyses and translational insight into how environmental exposures intersect with vascular inflammation and plaque vulnerability.

Nadja Sachs, PhD

Head, Munich Vascular Biobank | Scientific Staff, TUM University Hospital

Dr. Nadja Sachs is a cell biologist and biobank scientist specializing in human vascular tissue resources for translational research. She leads the Munich Vascular Biobank at TUM University Hospital, where she oversees the acquisition, processing, and integration of high-quality human vascular specimens for multi-omic and mechanistic studies. With training in microbiology and cell biology from Max Planck Institutes, Dr. Sachs plays a critical role in enabling collaborative, tissue-based investigations of vascular disease and environmental exposures. 

Ankit Sinha, PhD

Dr. Ankit Sinha earned his PhD in multi-omics integration in genomically unstable cancers in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. He then completed postdoctoral training with Dr. Matthias Mann at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (Munich, Germany), where he shifted his focus to cardiovascular disease and the role of extracellular proteins using spatial proteomics. He recently joined the Technical University of Munich Hospital as a group leader, where his research investigates how extracellular components (e.g., microparticles and intraplaque haemorrhage) contribute to plaque vulnerability.

Sander W. van der Laan, MD

Assistant professor in the Central Diagnostics Laboratory which is part of the Circulatory Health Program at the University Medical Center Utrecht

The Van der Laan Lab focuses on the genetic causes of atherosclerosis and its effects on plaque morphology that underly ischemic stroke and coronary artery disease, and subclinical atherosclerosis of the carotid and coronaries. Our previous work showed that smoking affects methylation in plaques, we hypothesize air pollution will too.

With our collaborative work we aim to move from genome-wide association studies loci to novel therapeutic targets and (surrogate) biomarkers for cardiovascular diseases through extensive in silico, and in vitro modelling.

We support and promote principles of Open Science by letting values of quality and integrity, science for the benefit of all, fairness, equity, diversity and inclusiveness guide our work. 

Nico Will

Nico is an immunologist and biotechnology expert focused on translational immune profiling. He explores innate and adaptive immune interactions using high-resolution transcriptomics combined with advanced organoid and in vivo models.

Ting Xiong, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford Medicine

Ting earned her PhD from McMaster University in Canada, where she studied the cholesterol-independent effects of PCSK9 on coronary artery disease. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Nicholas J. Leeper. Her research investigates the molecular mechanisms by which nicotine addiction and microplastics influence cardiovascular disease.

Siwen Zheng

Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Medicine

Dr. Siwen Zheng is a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Juyong Brian Kim’s lab in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University. She has been focusing on micro- and nanoplastics toxicology since her PhD training, with more than five years of continuous research experience. Her research currently focuses on using in vivo and in vitro models to study the mechanisms by which micro- and nanoplastics contribute to atherosclerosis.