Veeraraghavan awarded $2.2M NIH R01 grant

Congratulations to Sai Veeraraghavan, assistant professor, Biomedical Engineering (BME), for being awarded a 5 year, $2.2 million, grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH).   

His research titled “Targeting Vascular Leak and Intercalated Disk Nanodomains to Prevent Atrial Fibrillation” seeks to study the underlying causes of atrial fibrillation (AF) as it is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, affecting 2-3% of the US population. However, existing therapies simply focus on the management of AF, not its underlying causes. It is known that inflammation, vascular leak, and consequent tissue edema are widely associated with AF; yet their role in causing atrial arrhythmias remains unclear. In this proposal, Sai and his team will employ a cutting edge experimental toolkit ranging from the single molecule scale to the whole animal to investigate the mechanisms by which inflammation-induced vascular leak elevates AF risk. The knowledge gained from the research will help develop novel anti-arrhythmic drugs that target the mechanistic roots of AF.

This project is in collaboration with Sandor Gyorke, PhD, professor (Physiology, OSU), Przemyslaw Radwanski, PhD, assistant professor (Pharmacy, OSU), Robert Williams, PhD, assistant director for research and development (Center of Electron Microscopy and Analysis, OSU), and Brant Isakson, PhD, professor (Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, University of Virginia).