Pitt’s Leon Min wins American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship
A student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering was awarded a prestigious fellowship to support his research on tissue-engineered vascular grafts.
Leon Min, a second-year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering and the School of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program, has been awarded a Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA). This award provides stipend support and research funding to outstanding doctoral students conducting cardiovascular and stroke research, and this two-year fellowship will support both his doctoral research and his development as a physician-scientist in the field.
Min's research addresses an unmet need in vascular surgery: many patients who require bypass procedures lack suitable autologous vessels. While tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) are a promising alternative, their development has been hampered by complications including thrombosis, intimal hyperplasia, and unfavorable host responses. Under the mentorship of Professor of Bioengineering Jonathan Vande Geest, Min is investigating a TEVG platform that incorporates urinary bladder matrix (UBM), a natural extracellular matrix material derived from porcine urinary bladder, together with advanced fabrication techniques.
“UBM has been shown to promote anti-inflammatory macrophage polarization and constructive tissue remodeling in a variety of applications, including clinical use in hernia repair and preclinical studies of cardiac patches,” Min said. “Our work is among the first to investigate whether this immune-modulating effect extends to the vascular graft context, and how it may influence graft remodeling over time.”
Beyond his research, Min is obtaining exposure to treatment of patients with peripheral vascular disease through shadowing Natalie Sridharan, associate professor in the Department of Vascular Surgery. Min is also a trainee in the NIH T32 Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program (CBTP), serves as Vice President of the Engineering Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) and Professional Development Chair of the Graduate Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and is a member of the Eastern Vascular Society.
“This fellowship is about building a research profile recognized in the cardiovascular community, not just within my PhD program,” Min said. “It will allow me to continue conducting rigorous research that can translate into meaningful patient impact.”