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Two COH Students Earn Prestigious American Heart Association Award

Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology graduate students Sohom Mookherjee and Sean Tatum have received the American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship Award. This highly competitive fellowship provides up to two years of stipend funding to help students start careers in cardiovascular and stroke research.

Mookherjee and Tatum
      Sohom Mookherjee in the Symons Lab and Sean Tatum in the Summers/Holland Laboratory 

Mookherjee is a student in the Symons Lab, headed by J. David Symons, PhD. He will research the role of endothelial cell autophagy in contributing to the outcomes of acute ischemic stroke. This type of stroke occurs when an artery in the brain is blocked, causing vascular, behavioral, and motor deficits.

Endothelial cells make up the inner lining of blood vessels and use a process called autophagy to clear and break up damaged cell contents. Research with mice will determine if intact endothelial cell autophagy is protective in the context of acute ischemic stroke.

If so, endothelial cells could be targeted with therapeutic strategies to improve the quality of life for stroke survivors

Tatum is a student in the Summers/Holland Laboratory, headed by Scott Summers, PhD and Will Holland, PhD. He will research if preventing ceramide creation in the heart can prevent a specific kind of heart failure in diabetic patients.

Ceramides are toxic fats that build up in the blood organs of diabetic patients, including the heart. Previous lab research showed that stopping ceramide creation could prevent diabetes in mice, and Tatum’s research carries that over to the heart.

Since 65% of diabetic patients also develop heart failure, this research could help develop better treatments for these patients.  

“This is a very impressive award which substantiates the promising career trajectory of these two fine young scientists,” Symons said.