Xia Receives Early Career Award for Heart Research

Yang Xia, M.D., Ph.D.

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for Americans. By understanding the molecular mechanisms behind the disease, Yang Xia, M.D., Ph.D., hopes to reduce the statistics.

Based on her research, Xia recently received the Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award at the 2nd Annual Symposium of the American Heart Association Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences, which focused on “Targeting Heart Failure: New Science, New Tools, New Strategies.”

“If we can figure out the signaling pathways controlling hypertrophy, then we can stop it and prevent it in the early stages,” Xia said. “I want to find the molecular basis that results in hypertrophy and heart failure. If I know, I can stop it and rescue a lot of people’s lives.”

“We want to decrease the mortality rate due to cardiovascular disease – that’s the goal,” said Xia, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

Xia and her colleagues work to reach the goal through a study, funded by the American Heart Association-Texas Affiliate, that concentrates on identifying the switches that cause cardiac hypertrophy, an early predictor of heart failure.

“In cardiac hypertrophy, the cell grows in size,” Xia said. “This is the early stage of heart failure, which is reversible and compensatory. However, continued hypertrophic growth of the cardiac cells may eventually result in irreversible damage.”

Xia’s study focuses on a protein called calcineurin and its role in the signaling pathways that contribute to cardiac hypertrophy.

Xia’s abstract was chosen from about 250 applicants. As one of three finalists for the competition, she gave a 15-minute oral presentation of her work and answered questions from the judges and audience.

Xia received a $1,500 prize, as well as invitations from colleagues at the symposium to lecture at King’s College London and the University of Birmingham in England.

The Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award is not the first recognition Xia has received from the American Heart Association. In 2003, she received the Lyndon Baines Johnson Research Award for the highest ranking research proposal in a group of more than 70 in the junior investigator category. More recently, she was selected a finalist for the Young Investigator Award at the 27th Annual International Society for Heart Research American Section Meeting.

In addition, Xia recently received National Institutes of Health funding for a four-year research project that involves a pregnancy-induced cardiovascular condition. She is collaborating with Susan Ramin, M.D., the Berel Held, M.D., Professor, and Larry Gilstrap, III, M.D., the Emma Sue Hightower Professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.

“Yang has been conducting outstanding research in cardiovascular biology at the Medical School for many years – first as a graduate student, then as a postdoctoral fellow, and now as a junior faculty member,” said Rodney Kellems, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “We are proud of her accomplishments in this area and happy to see the recognition she is receiving for her important research. I am confident that Yang will continue to make major research contributions in the area of cardiovascular biology.”

By Camille Webb, Medical School