Membership
The Center for Heart and Vascular Research welcomes members from across the University of Nebraska system, including students, staff, fellows, residents and faculty.
Membership Requirements
Please read membership requirements and update your MyNCBI Bibliography Profile before applying.
We are an inclusive center, welcoming students, postdocs, staff, residents, nurses and faculty from across the University of Nebraska system, Children's Nebraska and Nebraska Medicine.
- Demonstrate a commitment to the center's vision to advance an integrated program of basic, clinical and translational research related to cardiovascular medicine. This is demonstrated by actively engaging in heart and vascular research and attending center events.
- Share areas of expertise as mentors to junior faculty, trainees, and staff. (For senior members)
- Participate in ad hoc review committees of funding proposals of fellow members upon request. All funding recipients agree to participate in future center award review panels.
- Join and actively participate in at least one focus group. (See Research Opportunities page for details)
- Attend the center's meetings, seminars, review committees, retreats and related activities as appropriate. It is expected that members will attend a minimum of five events per year.
- List the center as an affiliation on all publications (manuscripts, reviews, book chapters), in oral/poster presentations, grant submissions and media announcements.
- Agree to maintain an updated MyNCBI Bibliography Profile. The MyNCBI Bibliography profile provides a centralized platform to track publications and funding.
- Complete the center's annual survey to track grant submissions that result from center activities or funding, collaborative efforts with other members, mentoring, service-related, and community engagement activities.
To apply for CHVR membership, please email Amy Biggerstaff at abiggerstaff@unmc.edu.
Member Benefits
- Access to research funding opportunities.
- Access to research opportunities, including grant and fellowship writing workshops tailored for heart and vascular research and medicine, focus groups and the annual retreat.
- Priority access on core services.
- Access to philanthropic funds directed to center-specific efforts
Current Members: Faculty
Maher Abdalla, PhD
Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Assistant Professor - Non-tenure Track (Special Appointment)
Research Focus: The role of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and Heme Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) in the pathogenesis process.
Mona Al-Mugotir, PhD
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Instructor
Research Focus: Targeted therapeutics using homing peptides and efficient delivery of therapeutic payloads using liposomes with a primary interest in safely treating pregnancy complications. Additional translational research-focused training is planned to build on an existing foundation and allow the progress of future projects into preclinical trials.
Arpan Acharya, PhD
Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience
Instructor
Research Focus: Understanding the molecular mechanism of host-pathogen interaction to develop therapeutic strategies against emerging and re-emerging viral diseases; (b) developing novel assays and tools to identify the location of the anatomical sanctuaries where HIV reservoirs persist and from where the virus rebounds to periphery upon cessation of combined antiretroviral therapy (cART); (c) using nonhuman primate models that mimic the biology of HIV infection to understand the role of the substance of abuse in seeding and maintenance of HIV reservoirs.
Mabruka Alfaidi, MD, PhD
Cellular and Integrative Physiology
Assistant Professor - Tenure Track
Research Focus: Explore the intra-molecular pathways in individual cellular responses using translational tools from patients with or without CAD to small and large animal-based approaches
Windy Alonso, PhD
Nursing
Assistant Professor - Tenure Track
Research Focus: Improving the lives of individuals with cardiovascular dysfunction across the lifespan by develop and testing interventions to promote exercise that can applied in diverse and underserved settings.
Dan Anderson, MD, PhD
Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine
Associate Professor
Research Focus: Understanding inflammation as a result of MAA-adduction (ethanol consumption) and the impact on cardiovascular disease. MAA-adduction of proteins disrupts regulatory lysines and reversible acylation, facilitates protein dysregulation and tissue inflammation that is associated diseases of age such as atrial fibrillation and heart failure. Treatment and prevention is the clinical goal or our research.
Ann Anderson Berry, MD, PhD
Pediatrics
Professor
Research Focus: Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy (HDP) and the impact of fat soluble micro nutrients on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes. Specifically we are interested in carotenoids, Vitamin A, E, and D and Specialized Pre-resolving mediators (SPMs). We are also interested in understanding the disparities related to these conditions.
Amar Annapureddy, MD
Internal Medicine - Cardiovascular Medicine
Assistant Professor - Tenure Track
Research Focus: Ischemia with non-obstructive coronary arteries (INOCA), a condition that remains under-recognized despite its significant impact on patients—especially women—and its association with adverse cardiovascular outcomes.
Paul Ayayee, PhD
Cellular and Integrative Physiology
Assistant Professor - Tenure Track
Research Focus: Demonstrating function and showing biological relevance of symbiotic associations in host ( vertebrate and invertebrates)-microbial symbioses. I use classic molecular and biochemical approaches to investigate in vitro, speculated/proposed microbial functions of relevance to a host.
Pooneh Bagher, PhD
Cellular and Integrative Physiology
Associate Professor
Research Focus: Examining the subtle interplay between endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and perivascular nerves using a range of in vivo and in vitro techniques in physiological and pathophysiological states. We are also interested in how vascular function is altered under extreme physiological conditions (like spaceflight!)
Kristina Bailey, MD
Internal Medicine - Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
Associate Professor
Research Focus: The effects of exposures like aging, cigarette smoke, cannabis smoke in pulmonary innate immunity.
Current Members: Non-Faculty
Isaac Adediji, BS
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Graduate Student
Lab: Dr. Lynda Harris
Research Focus: Understanding the mechanism of placental dysfunction with a view to developing safe and effective treatments without jeopardizing the well-being of the mother and growing fetus.
Joy Adewumi, MS
Cellular and Integrative Physiology
Graduate Student
Lab: Dr. Rebekah Gundry
Research Focus: Cardiac cells using highly analytical techniques.