Professional Activities

Professional Affiliation
1998-Present:    American Physiological Society
1999-Present:    American Heart Association
2006-Present:    American Genetics Society

Research Activities

Areas of Research Interest:

Atherosclerosis; lipid metabolism; aortic aneurysm; stroke; obesity and type 2 diabetes; molecular imaging.

Current Projects:

Radiation and atherosclerosis (Supported by NIH R21 HL112281).
Genetic link between type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis (R01DK097120).
Identification of Lama5 as a major atherosclerosis susceptibility gene(Supported by UVA School of Medicine Tobacco Fund).
Pthalate exposure and development of type 2 diabetes (Supported by UVA School of Medicine Gap Fund).
PET imaging of macrophages in pancreatic islets.

Research collaboration/Team Science:
Collaborators at UVA: Alan Matsumoto, John Angle, Jiang He, and BjoyKundu in Radiology; Gregory Helm and Jason Sheehan in Neurosurgery; Victor Laubach in Surgery; Zhenqi Liu in Endocrinology; AniManichaikul and Michele Sale in Center for Public Health and Genomics.  Outside UVA: George Tellides at Yale; Tammy Dugas at Louisiana State University, Shreveport; AldonsLusis at UCLA.

Teaching Activities

A. Classroom, Seminar, or Teaching Laboratory

2008-present:  Biochemistry 816.This seminar course is organized in 4~5 pre-selected topics and each topic occupies 3 weeks.  In the first week of a topic, a faculty introduces the subject, provide an historical context, review critical findings, and set the stage for the work to be presented by students in the two subsequent weeks.  Faculty members also guide students to choose appropriate articles.  Attendees include graduates, postdoctors, and faculty; 5% responsibility.

2010-present: Biology Independent Research (BIOL 4920).BIOL 4920 isa graded course, with students expected to devote 10-12 hours per week in the laboratory. Students generally spend most of their research semester learning techniques and becoming familiar with the relevant research literature for their projects.

2013: Research Ethics (BIMS SP 7100), small group teaching.This is an eight-week course that includes lectures and small group discussion sections with experienced members of the BIMS faculty, using case studies to explore real-life situations involving ethical issues and the responsible conduct of research.  All BIMS graduate students are required to enroll and fully participate in this course.

2008-2012: General and Molecular Genetics (BIMS 808), graduate course, one semester; 10 to 20 graduates; three lectures: 1) Organization of human genome (2 h); 2) Genetic Variation (2 h); 3) Patterns of Inheritance (2 h); 10% responsibility

Clinical Teaching (in ward, clinic, OR)
None.  

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES (BOARDS, EDITORSHIPS, ETC.)
2007-present: Ad hoc member, NIH CSR Study Section (AICS, VCMB, Program project, Special emphasis panel).
2013, 2014: Abstract reviewer, American Heart Association Annual Scientific Meeting.
2013, 2014: Poster Professor,American Heart Association Annual Scientific Meeting.
2012: Grant reviewer, Israel Science Foundation (ISF), Israel.
2006-2008: Abstract reviewer, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Annual Meetings.
2004:     Member, Grant review group, International Junior Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
2004-2008: Member, Grant Review Group, American Heart Association-Mid-Atlantic Affiliate.
2006: Faculty, 7th Annual Conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. April 27-29, 2006. Denver, Co.
2010-present: Editorial Board, Journal of Clinical & Experimental Cardiology.
2010-present: Editorial Board, The Journal of Functional Foods in Health and Disease.
2011-present: Editorial Board, ISRN Vascular Medicine.
2011-present: Editorial Board, Journal of Metabonomics& Metabolites.
2011-2013: Editorial Board, Physiological Genomics, American Physiological Society.
2012: Organizer of OMICS Publishing Group Cardiology-2012, Omaha.

Reviewer for the following journals: 
Circulation
Circulation Research
Atherosclerosis Thrombosis Vascular Biology
General Pharmacology
American Journal of Transplantation
Atherosclerosis
Am Journal of Aging
Am Journal of Physiology
Hypertension
Mammalian Genome
Journal of American Heart Association
Journal of Biological Chemistry
Journal of Clinical Investigation