Dr. Wei Ruan Receives the 2022 IARS Mentored Research Award

Congratulations to Dr. Wei Ruan for receiving the 2022 International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) Mentored Research Award for her project entitled “Circadian cardioprotection: BMAL1/HIF2A complex and co-target amphiregulin”. She will receive $175,000 over the next two years to conduct her research project.

As an cardiac anesthesiologist and physician scientist, Dr. Ruan’s research  project is focused on identifying novel treatment approaches to dampen myocardial injury in cardiac surgery patients. Her preliminary data indicate that the core circadian gene – BMAL1 and the hypoxia-inducible factor HIF2A form a transcriptionally active complex that is critical in mediating circadian-dependent cardioprotection. The proposed studies will make progress towards providing a mechanistic understanding of the interaction of both transcription factors, and for developing circadian-based therapeutic approaches to prevent or treat myocardial injury in patients undergoing major surgery.

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