Doddapattar earns AHA career development award

Prakash Doddapattar, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in the Chauhan Lab, earned a three-year, $231,000 Career Development Award from the American Heart Association (AHA). Doddapattar’s application was ranked below 1 percentile, indicating it was among the very best. Doddapattar will use the funds to investigate the mechanisms by which myeloid cell-specific metabolic enzyme, Pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2), promotes plaque build-up in the arteries. Doddapattar’s research will offer more insight into myeloid cell functions and their impact on atherosclerosis development.

Doddapattar’s team will use state-of-the art intravital microscopy to analyze cell adhesion in arteries of animal models during atherogenesis. Additionally, he will use Gene Set Enrichment Analysis of comparative transcriptomics to develop a deeper understanding of the role PKM2 plays in the development of plaque.

Since joining Chauhan’s lab in 2014, Doddapattar has assisted the research team in some of their acclaimed projects, and eventually earned an AHA postdoctoral research fellowship in 2018. Using this funding, Doddapattar researched the mechanisms of myeloid-specific integrin α9β1 in early atherosclerosis.

“I would like to thank my mentoring team–professors Anil Chauhan, Steven Lentz, Isabella Grumbach and Donald Heistad–who have been supporting all the years,” Doddapattar said. Further extending his thanks, Doddapattar said, “I am also grateful to the Chair of Internal Medicine, professor Dale Abel and the University of Iowa administrative staff for always helping me out during my grant applications both in the past and present.”