Cardiovascular Research Center

Trainees

 Predoctoral Trainees (2018-2019)

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Katrina Carter

Research Statement:
My primary research interest is how metabolic disease states influence vascular regulation. I am actively working on two studies that are potential dissertation projects. The first study investigates cerebral blood flow responses to an endogenous insulin surge and how prediabetes may alter insulin-mediated vasodilation in the cerebral circulation of young adults. Similarly, the second study investigates vascular regulation in skeletal muscle in healthy and obese young adults during dynamic exercise to explore the effects of obesity on exercise-mediated vasodilation. The study of young adults with prediabetes or obesity allows us to determine how vascular dysfunction manifests before overt cardiovascular diseases occur.
Faculty Trainer: William Schrage, PhD, Kinesiology

John Cowgill

Research Statement:
John received his bachelors in Biochemistry from UW-Madison in 2010 and a MS in Biochemistry from Arizona State University in 2012.  His Master’s work was focused on the biophysical mechanisms of photosynthetic reaction centers.  He returned to Wisconsin in 2013 looking to continue studies on membrane proteins in the Biophysics program in Dr. Baron Chanda’s lab.  His research in the Chanda lab has primarily been focused on understanding how sensory domains of ion channels (voltage, temperature, and ligands) are coupled to the pore domain.  Currently, he is trying to determine the components of hyperpolarization-activated, cyclic nucleotide-regulated (HCN) channels responsible for the inverted voltage response in these channels compared to canonical voltage-gated channels.
Faculty Trainer: Baron Chanda, PhD, Neuroscience

Kathleen Miller

Despite being approximately 2% of our body weight, our brains require 20% of our total cardiac output. Maintaining adequate cerebral blood flow is crucial for optimal brain function and prevention of cognitive decline. Kathleen studies cerebrovascular function in healthy adults by quantifying cerebral blood flow responses to perturbations in chemical and metabolic stimuli using standard (ultrasound) and novel (4D Flow MRI) techniques. Her primary research focus is on age related changes in cerebrovascular function, and how such changes may be influenced by biological sex, hormone status, and lifestyle factors. She is also interested in the relationship between central hemodynamics (aortic blood pressure and central arterial stiffness) and cerebral hemodynamics. Her PhD studies will provide insight into cerebral blood flow regulation of the healthy aging brain.

Faculty Trainer: Jill Barnes, PhD, Kinesiology

Ryan Pewowaruk

Ryan received his bachelors degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2016. His research focuses on improving non-invasive intervention planning using a combination of PC-MRI, which measures blood flow, computational models and 3D printing. The goal of this work is to increase the efficacy of non-invasive cardiovascular interventions by understanding how the intervention alters blood flow and predicting intervention outcomes. Ryan is particularly interested in applying these techniques to pediatric diseases such as congenital heart defects.

Faculty Trainer: Alejandro Roldán-Alzate, PhD, Mechanical Engineering/ Biomedical Engineering

Whitney Stevens-Sostre

Whitney received a B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in 2015. After graduating, she worked as a research technician at the University of Chicago through the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), where she analyzed signaling pathways that influence gliogenesis. She is currently a 3rd year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Gail Robertson. She is interested in how EAG1 member of the KCNH family of voltage-gated potassium channels controls membrane excitability. In particular, her project aims to understand the mechanism of calmodulin inhibition of hEAG1 channels by disrupting residues that are predicted to be within the allosteric path that couple CaM binding to the pore.

Faculty Trainer: Gail Robertson, PhD, Neuroscience

Postdoctoral Trainees (2018-2019)

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Tzu-Wen Cross

Research Statement:
Tzu-Wen earned her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her graduate research focused on the impacts of diet on metabolic health. During this time, she also investigated the role of the gut microbiome-an ecosystem that is hugely impacted by diet and nutrition, on metabolic dysfunction, loss of ovarian hormone production, and/or physical inactivity. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Federico Rey’s laboratory (Bacteriology) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is studying how diet-microbe interactions modulate the development of atherosclerosis. She is also collaborating with Drs. James Stein and Matthew Tattersall (Cardiovascular Medicine) to elucidate the gut microbial related atherosclerosis development in response to smoking and early on-set asthma.
Faculty Trainer: Federico Rey, PhD, Bacteriology

Zachery Gregorich

 Research Statement:
Zach received a B.S. in Chemistry from St. Norbert College and a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from UW-Madison. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Kamp. His project is focused on identifying the protein constituents of caveolae, specialized microdomains of the plasmalemma, in cardiomyocytes using mass spectrometry-based proteomics. The importance of caveolae is underscored by the fact that mutations in caveolin-3, the principal structural protein component of caveolae in cardiomyocytes, have been associated with pathological conditions, including congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS), cardiomyopathy, and sudden infant death syndrome. A better understanding of the proteins present in caveolae will not only provide insights into the mechanisms of ion channel regulation and signal transduction, but may also aid the identification of novel susceptibility genes for pathological cardiovascular conditions from among the caveolar components.
Faculty Trainer: Timothy Kamp, MD/PhD, Cardiovascular Medicine

Jenny Knickelbine

Research Statement:

Jenny received a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Zoology and Neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the laboratory of Dr. Gail Robertson. Her project aims to identify mechanisms of co-translational association between two related subunits of the hERG voltage-gated potassium channel, which is responsible for the major repolarizing current in the cardiac action potential and implicated in some forms of long QT syndrome (LQTS) and sudden cardiac death. She is investigating both direct (mRNA-mRNA) and indirect (mRNA-protein) interactions between these transcripts using RNA binding assays, immunoprecipitation, and mass spectrometry.

Faculty Trainer: Gail Robertson, PhD, Neuroscience

Kelly Schmidt

Research Statement:

Kelly received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. She then completed her M.D. at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, followed by her residency training in Internal Medicine here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. James Stein’s laboratory here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her project is focused on smoking cessation and the impact cessation has on markers of arterial stiffness and distensibility, with the ultimate goal of helping to further our understanding of the true impact smoking cessation has on overall cardiovascular health.

Faculty Trainer: James H. Stein, MD, Cardiovascular Medicine