Sophie Ashbrook, a Ph.D. student from the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), received a top 5% score for her proposal to the American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship, titled “Investigating the interaction between caveolin-1 and the epidermal growth factor receptor in vascular calcification.” The purpose of the AHA fellowship is to enhance the research of promising students who are enrolled in pre-doctoral programs and who intend careers as scientists, physician-scientists, or related careers aimed at improving global cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health.
Ashbrook’s research, sponsored by Dr. Joshua Hutcheson from the BME department and Dr. Kevin Chandler (HWCOM), focuses on mechanisms related to vascular calcification, the deposition of bone-like minerals in diseased cardiovascular tissues. Vascular calcification compromises cardiovascular performance, leading to outcomes such as heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure, but no treatment options exist. The proposal by Ashbrook aims to elucidate molecular mechanisms responsible for the formation of vascular calcification. Ashbrook will study the interaction between two proteins, caveolin-1 and epidermal growth factor receptors, that may initiate vascular calcification. The outcomes of this study could lead to the development of new treatments that could target a major contributor to cardiovascular disease.