Affiliated Faculty
This list of affiliated investigators can help you identify potential research mentors at the University of Pittsburgh. PSTP students can, and do, work with mentors not on this list, but the investigators featured below have expressed interest in hosting PSTP students in their laboratories.
Investigation of the molecular mechanisms that regulate the pathogenesis of genetic and acquired cardiomyopathies
Basic science and translational research studying the molecular mechanisms of pulmonary vascular disease and pulmonary hypertension
Intersection of mitochondrial function, metabolism and aging
Genetics of congenital heart disease, role of epigenetics in adverse clinical outcome, disease modeling using patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells
Moulik's clinical expertise is in cardiovascular genetics, cardiomyopathies, connective tissue disorders resulting in aortopathies, general cardiology and noninvasive cardiac imaging. She is the Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. The focus of this clinic is to determine an underlying genetic etiology for inherited familial cardiovascular disorders including various forms of cardiomyopathies, heart rhythm disorders, aortic aneurysms, inherited lipid disorders, unexplained sudden cardiac arrest and help families with appropriate risk assessment and clinical screening of at-risk family members. Moulik also leads an NIH funded research lab with focus on heart failure signaling.
Research in the Phillippi Lab is focused on microvascular dysfunction in cardiopulmonary disease, the role of perivascular progenitor cells, adventitial biology/biomechanics and vasa vasorum function in aortic disease and lung failure, cell-matrix interactions inciting vascular/microvascular matrix remodeling, pericytes in (patho)physiological vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, and tissue-engineered models of cardiovascular disease.
My laboratory is interested in understanding congenital heart disease using translational models that relate clinical findings to in vitro systems, so as to further elucidate molecular and cellular mechanisms that contribute towards congenital heart disease. We use induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and gene editing to create clinically relevant biological models of congenital heart disease.
Characterizing the underlying pathobiology of vascular disease, concentrating on defining the mechanisms that drive vascular and valvular calcification and remodeling during aging and disease states
We leverage molecular biology, human genetics, animal models, stable isotope tracers, imaging mass spectrometry, and human translational studies to discover cellular, molecular, and metabolic determinants of diseases of aging ranging from diabetes to cancer.
The development of medical diagnostic and therapeutic strategies that are based on ultrasound and ultrasound contrast agents (microbubbles)