McKamish Family Foundation Cardiovascular Innovator Awards

McKamish Family Foundation Cardiovascular Innovator Awards is sponsored by McKamish Family Foundation (through University of Pittsburgh Medical Center). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

Innovator Awards | Vascular Medicine Institute McKamish Family Foundation Cardiovascular Innovator Awards Pilot Project Program in Hemostasis and Vascular Biology (P3HVB) McKamish Family Foundation Cardiovascular Innovator Awards VMI Postdoctoral Scholar Award Cardiology Fellow Research Grants These awards are made possible through a generous donation from the McKamish Family Foundation that began in December 2021.

The goal of these awards is to fund the most promising collaborative projects within HVI/VMI. The mission is to advance innovative cardiovascular research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and catalyze collaborations between basic-translational scientists and clinicians in the cardiovascular space. Cynthia St.

Hilaire, PhD Leveraging a Long Non-coding RNA to Block Cardiovascular Calcification: A Pilot Study Brett Kaufman, PhD & Anita Saraf, MD, PhD Developing iPSC-derived Primary Mitochondrial Disease Anum Saeed, MD The Effect of Pelagic-1 Supplementation on Lipid and Inflammatory Biofluid Markers and Subclinical Atherosclerosis: A Pilot Study Agnes Koczo, MD Epigenetic Aging and Premature Cardiovascular Disease Following Peripartum Cardiomyopathy and Preeclampsia Kang Kim, PhD and Edith Tzeng, MD Prevent Unnecessary Carotid Intervention and Stroke by Assessing Plaque Lipids and Neovascularization Using Novel Hybrid Ultrasound Imaging Technology Malamo Countouris, MD and Jared Magnani, MD Multilevel Mobile Health Program to Improve Hypertension Among Midlife Women After Hypertensive Disorder of Pregnancy Sae Jang, MD and Spandan Maiti, PhD Evaluation of In Vivo Capillary Biomechanics and Flow in Diabetes Using Microbubbles as Mechanical Vascular Probes Cynthia St.

Hilaire, PhD & Ibrahim Sultan, MD Mechanisms Dictating Canonical VS Non-Canonical Functions of Tert Flordeliza S.

Villaneuva, MD In Vivo Delivery of yPNAs by Ultrasound-targeted Microbubble Cavitation Anum Saeed, MD Cholesterol-mTOR Nexus: Dissecting the Impact of Hypercholesterolemia on Lysosomal Degradation Pathways in Humans Anita Saraf, MD, PhD Development of a Full-biologic 3D Bioprinted Hepatic Sinusoid Model for Improved Risk Stratification of Thrombosis Burden in Fontan-treated Single-ventricle Patients Lianghui Zhang, MD, PhD & Michael G.

Risbano, MD, MA Pathogenic Mechanism and Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Exercise Intolerance in Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 Neil Kelly, MD, PhD Evaluating the Effect of Ketones in Hypoxic Congenital Cardiomyopathy Saifur Rahman Khan, PhD & Anum Saeed, MD CERS2 Deletion and Its Loss-of-Function Polymorphism-Induced Atherosclerotic Dyslipidermia: A Pathway from Type 2 Diabetes to Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Tanmay Gokhale, MD, PhD & Deeptankar DeMazumder, MD, PhD Machine Learning-Based Longitudinal Analysis of Serial ECGs for Prediction of Sudden Death Adam C.

Straub, PhD CRB5R3 T117S Variant Contribution to NO-cGC-cGMP Mediated Coronary Vascular Dysfunction and Cardiac Hypertrophy in Non-Ischemic and Peripartum Cardiomyopathy Submission deadline: May 8, 2026 Advance innovative clinical and translational cardiovascular research in the Cardiology Division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center with the goal of conducting research that would lead to extramural funding of clinical trials and/or population studies.

This is made possible through a generous donation from the McKamish Family Foundation to HVI-Cardiology. Up to $25K , one-year seed funding for an innovative clinical or translational project with strong potential to lead to extramural funding. There will be an opportunity to receive a second installment of $25K , based on progress, promising results, and appropriate budgetary justification.

Up to 6 applications will be funded annually. Project must be a study whose principal investigator (PI) is a faculty member in HVI-Cardiology.

Applications must include: Cover Page – name of faculty PI, co-investigators with academic degrees/ranks, contact information, budget period (not to exceed one year and to start four weeks after submission date at earliest), requested initial budget (not to exceed $25K ) Proposal – Maximum of 3 pages (+ 1-page bibliography) narrative addressing research rationale , aims/hypotheses, approach, expected results and plan for extramural funding Budget – one-page budget describing distribution of funds.

Note: Money can be used to support staff and postdocs, but not faculty salaries Money cannot be used to buy equipment Money can support only direct costs (no indirect costs) The completed 6-page document should be saved as a single PDF and submitted to Tami Robinson, Administrative Assistant to Dr. Saba ( robinsontj@upmc. edu ) with a cc to Darleen Noah, Administrative Director of HVI and VMI, ( noahd@pitt. edu ).

Successful applicants are required to provide a report at the end of the one-year funding period to the internal advisory board of the McKamish Family Foundation Cardiology Innovator Awards describing their findings, which will be shared with the McKamish Family Foundation. They will also be asked to provide a short presentation to representatives of the McKamish Family Foundation.

All publications supported by these funds should acknowledge the McKamish Family Foundation for its generous support. Applications will undergo peer review by non-conflicted investigators from the University of Pittsburgh and/or UPMC. Recommendations made by the peer review process will be forwarded to the internal advisory board of HVI-Cardiology for final selection of grants to be awarded.

The project is novel and innovative The cardiovascular question is relevant and prevalent The results have impactful clinical implications The project is feasible and experimental approach is rigorous The project has potential to lead to more comprehensive studies The project has potential to yield to extramural funding Click here to view/download a PDF of the information above.