University of Wisconsin–Madison
Cardiovascular Research Center

Trainees

 Predoctoral Trainees (2017-2018)

  • 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
  • Kellen DeLaney
    Research Statement:
    The crustacean cardiovascular system is one of the simplest animal models, with cardiac contractions being controlled by only 9 neurons, yet the circuitry and interconnectivity of key molecules is highly complex.  The rhythm is believed to be impacted by numerous neuropeptides released locally and long-range as circulating hormones.  Kellen’s research focuses on developing mass spectrometry techniques to probe the crustacean neuropeptidome in key neuroendocrine tissue and circulating fluid.  She is also working to improve in vivo sampling of neuropeptides from the animal over the course of time using affinity-enhanced microdialysis in order to measure changes in neuropeptide abundance under normal and hypoxic conditions.  After detecting key neuropeptides that are shown to have a significant impact on cardiac output, she will perform a targeted quantification study to determine the biologically relevant concentrations of these neuropeptides.  Knowledge of the in vivo concentrations of neuropeptides will enable electrophysiological investigations into their effects on heartbeat.
    Faculty Trainer: Lingjun Li, PhD, Pharmacy
  • Yang Hu

    Research Statement:

    Diabetes mellitus is a rising global epidemic with a predicted worldwide prevalence of 592 million by 2035. Greater than 95% of all diabetic patients have the acquired form of disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Many complications result from T2DM with heart disease being the most common. Diabetic cardiomyopathy is a complication that affects over 12% of type 2 diabetics and is defined as heart failure independent of other cardiovascular risk factors. Recently, a direct interaction between insulin and adrenergic pathways of the heart in a T2DM C57BL/6J mouse model generated by feeding a high fat diet. This signaling interaction has been shown to result in contractile dysfunction in the absence of structural and functional remodeling during hyperinsulinemia seen in early disease. However, the molecular mechanisms by which this pathway directly involves the contractile units of the heart, known as sarcomeres, remain incompletely understood. Yang’s research project will undertake a systems biology approach using top-down proteomics to investigate the effect of a high fat diet on altering sarcomeric protein post-translational modifications (PTMs) in the T2DM C57BL/6J mouse model and to provide insight into the insulin-adrenergic pathway and the signaling proteins that are responsible for altering sarcomeric PTMs in disease.

    Faculty Trainer: Ying Ge, PhD, Cell and Regenerative Biology

Postdoctoral Trainees (2017-2018)

  • 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
  • Andrea Talukdar
    Research Statement:
    Faculty Trainer: J. Carter Ralphe, MD, Pediatrics