Mabruka Alfaidi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, UNMC Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology
Dr. Alfaidi is a physician scientist with rich expertise in cardiology research, including translational cardiovascular science, mechanotransduction, vascular cell dedifferentiation, and interleukin-1 signaling pathway.
She is the principal investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH)/ National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) R01 until 2029, which focuses on determining the molecular mechanism underlying endothelial to mesenchymal transition (EndMT) secondary to disturbed blood flow and severe atherosclerosis to identify novel therapeutic target(s).
Dr. Alfaidi has been invited as a feature speaker at national and international conferences, including The Rising Star Session in Redox Biology in Japan 2022, and the Gordon Research Conference in Biomechanics (GRC) 2023 and 2025 in CA. Her work has received numerous awards from prestigious societies, including the 2020 British Atherosclerosis Young Investigator Award, the 2021 ATVB Young Investigator in training Award, and the Gordon Conference in Biomechanics YoungInvestigatorAward in 2023.
In terms of services, Dr. Alfaidi is involved in the leadership for several professional societies (ATVB Council, NAVBO), and she currently serves as the Chair to the American Heart Association (AHA): Vascular2 predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowship, and she acted as an ad hoc reviewer on the career development award: clinical and basic science, and on the National Institute of Heath – IVPP (Integrative Vascular Physiology and Pathology, June 2024) Study Sections. Dr. Alfaidi is an Editorial member at the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) and An Associate Editor of Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.
Dr. Alfaidi is very actively engaging in considerable mentoring activities and her services as the Chair of the Membership Committee in the North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO). Dr. Alfaidi has extensive experience with trainee career development, where she served at the ATVB Early Career and the ATVB Women leadership committees between 2020-2024, that capacity allows her to oversee the career training and help in organizing topics related to trainee career development. She has mentored and supervised physician scientists, MD-PhD students, laboratory technicians, managers, undergraduate students, and fellows.
- PhD: University of Sheffield, 2016.
- Honorary Cardiology Fellow: University of Sheffield, 2017.
- Postdoctoral Fellow: Louisiana State University, 2021.
- Medical School: Faculty of Medicine of the University of Benghazi, 2011.
Dr. Alfaidi laboratory makes discoveries in the following cardiovascular research areas:
Intramolecular Pathway(s) of Unstable Atheroma in Coronary Artery Disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major health problem with co-morbidities and high mortality rates. Despite our advances, we still do not have a curative therapy to cure CAD. Atherosclerosis, an underlying progressive disease process, can rupture leading to the sudden death or acute myocardial infarction in CAD patients. The instability of coronary atheroma is largely characterized by high mesenchymal content, large necrotic cores, and more proinflammation. We previously have identified the major lesion culprit, interleukin-1 beta, in the endothelium of coronary atheroma in patients of CAD. This project aims at understanding the molecular function of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT), fate and their contribution to the lesion instability.
Vascular cell remodeling in Idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension:
Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH) is increasingly diagnosed in elderly patients who have an increased risk of co-morbid atherosclerosis. Once diagnosed, the median survival rate is 2.5 years with poor prognostic outcomes. The underlying pathology in IPAH is very complex yet has very remarkable characteristics, including endothelial apoptosis, proliferation, EndMT. Pulmonary endothelium plays important roles in IPAH and several lines of evidence demonstrating EndMT formation and inflammation as contributing factors in the pathogenesis of IPAH. This project aims at determining how and when endothelial remodeling contributes in process of IPAH and how that can be targeted in IPAH patients.
- Kidder E, Pea M, Cheng S, Koppada SP, Visvanathan S, Henderson Q, Thuzar M, Yu X, Alfaidi M. The interleukin-1 receptor type-1 in disturbed flow-induced endothelial mesenchymal activation. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023;10:1190460. PMID: 37539090.
- Kidder E, Gangopadhyay S, Francis S, Alfaidi M. “How to Release or Not Release, That Is the Question.” A Review of Interleukin‐1 Cellular Release Mechanisms in Vascular Inflammation. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2024. 0:e032987. PMID: 38390810.
- Alfaidi M, Acosta CH, Wang D, Traylor JG, Orr AW. Selective role of nck1 in atherogenic inflammation and plaque formation. J Clin Invest. 2020; 130:4331-4347. PMID: 32427580.
- Alfaidi M, Wilson H, Daigneault M, Burnett A, Ridger V, Chamberlain J, Francis S. (2015) Neutrophil elastase promotes interleukin-1β secretion from human coronary endothelium. J Biol Chem., 290:24067-78. PMID: 26269588.
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2024-2026, Committee member on the ATVB Investigator-in-training award committee
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2023-2026, Chair North American Vascular Biology (NAVBO) Membership Committee on NAVBO Council.
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2018-present: Membership of American Heart Association.
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2014-present: Membership of NAVBO.
Study Section Reviewer:
- 11/2021-present: Ad-hoc reviewer for the American Heart Association: CDA Population Sciences
- 11/2022: Ad-hoc reviewer for the American Heart Association: pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowship, AHA 2023 Immunology Basic Science
- 2/2023: Ad hoc reviewer for the American Heart Association: CDA Vascular 3 Committee.
- 5/2023: Ad hoc reviewer for the American Heart Association: Innovative Project Award Clinical 2
- 2/2024: Ad hoc reviewer for the American Heart Association: CDA Basic Science 1 and 2024 Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award LOI and Full App#3.
- 06/2024: Ad hoc reviewer for the NIH IVPP Study Section.