BME post-doc and PhD candidate receive fellowships from American Heart Association

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Post-doctoral researcher Dr. Sathya Unudurthi and Ph.D. candidate David Yeung, both in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), were awarded prestigious fellowships from the American Heart Association (AHA).

Unudurthi has a Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, India, and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the National University of Singapore. He has been working as a post-doctoral researcher under BME Associate Professor Thomas Hund since 2013. 

In his research, Unudurthi is studying how inflammation in the heart causes injury to heart muscles, as well as structural and functional deficits that can eventually cause heart failure. The mutant mice used in the study with truncation in βIV-spectrin, an actin-associated polypeptide, displayed resistance to inflammation and heart damage, even when subjected to chronic stress. Preliminary studies implicate βIV-spectrin and STAT3, a transcription factor, as potential candidates responsible for the inflammation-resistant behavior in mutant mice, and Unudurthi will be investigating the underlying mechanism behind these findings in greater detail. 

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BME post-doctoral researcher Dr. Sathya Unudurthi

 

Yeung has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering from Purdue University and is a fifth-year BME Ph.D. candidate.

Yeung’s research, under the direction of BME Associate Professor Gunjan Agarwal, focuses on the mechanical properties of type 1 collagen and how it is modulated by interactions with other proteins. This research will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of the extracellular matrix mechanics and its role in diseases, as well as tissue engineering applications. Yeung’s fellowship from the AHA is specifically aimed at understanding the effect of collagen I mechanics in abdominal aortic aneurysm progression through a potential biomarker.

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BME Ph.D. candidate David Yeung

 

Congratulations, Sathya and David!