Karthi Sreedevi’s research focuses on heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. When your heart is weak, it cannot pump enough blood to meet your body’s needs for oxygen and nutrients. “My long-term goal is to understand how the heart muscle works efficiently in energy production and functions properly under stress.”

She wants to become a world expert in cardiac glycobiology (the study of carbohydrates, glycans, or glycans) and improve the lives of heart disease patients.

Dr. Samar Antar studies pulmonary arterial hypertension, which affects the lungs and the right side of the heart, and a rare disease known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, which is characterized by long-term scarring of lung tissue. Pulmonary fibrosis can lead to heart failure and other lung diseases.

Two early career scientists from Virginia Tech have been awarded two-year postdoctoral fellowships from the American Heart Association. Competitive fellowships help support academic trainees conducting cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, or brain health research.

The scientists will receive scholarships for their research under the guidance of world-class health researchers at VTC’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

Sreedevi joined Junko Warren’s lab in December 2021. Warren is an assistant professor at the Fralin Institute for Biomedical Research, whose research interests include metabolic reprogramming in heart failure. “Thanks to Dr. Warren’s guidance, my leadership in research projects developed rapidly,” Sredevi said.

Sredevi, who has two young children, also received the Virginia Tech Research and Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Graduate School of Science Women’s Fellowship National Honor Award in 2023. These awards provide additional training and support for career development. “I really respect her as a researcher and as her mother,” Warren said. “She’s an excellent postdoc.”

Antar studies the mechanisms that cause fibrosis and inflammation in the lungs. She was attracted to the field while pursuing her PhD in pharmacology, where she was studying the effects of cancer treatments on fibrosis.

“Normal lungs should be soft and elastic to help normal breathing,” Anter says. In patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the lungs become stiff and thick. “Over time, these changes make it more difficult for patients to breathe properly. It’s like trying to inflate a balloon that crumples and won’t inflate.”

Her research investigates the role of two proteins, Id1 and Id3, in pulmonary fibrosis. She works in the laboratory of Yassin Sassi, an assistant professor at the Fralin Institute for Biomedical Research. “Samar is a really good scientist,” Sassi said. “The American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship will help her achieve an important milestone on her career path to becoming an independent researcher.”

In this report

• Yassine Sassi, Assistant Professor, VTC Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, Department of Biomedicine and Pathobiology, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
• Junko Warren, Assistant Professor, Department of Human Nutrition, Food and Kinesiology, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, VTC Fralin Biomedical Research Institute