Pilots and Funding

HeRO members benefit from a wide range of research resources and funding opportunities, including Emory Pediatric Research Center pilot grants and other external funding sources tailored to HeRO faculty researchers. We are proud to support these innovative studies, which drive advances in care for children with cardiovascular conditions. Explore some of the internally and externally funded pilot projects that have emerged from our HeRO community.

Meet Our Investigators

32N80W Pilot Awardees (4 Total)

2021

Justin Long, Michael Fiedorek & Rishi Kamaleswaran,"Risk Stratification of Children with Congenital Heart Disease Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery: A Machine Learning-Generate Predictive Model and Internal Validation."
Laura Downy & David Myers, "Characterization of Platelet Function in Neonates Undergoing Cardiac Surgery."
Subhadra Shashidharan & Lakshmi Prasad Dasi, "Novel Growth Compliant Pediatric Surgical Polymeric Aortic Valve."
Omer Inan, Zahidee Rodriguez & Kevin Maher, "Using Audio Characteristics of Systemic to Pulmonary Connections in Ductal Dependent Infants as a Non-invasive Measure of Pulmonary Blood-flow Parameters."

Enduring Hearts Pilot Awardees (4 Total)

2021

Arene Butto, "Prime Time: Is there an Optimal VAD Duration Prior to Heart Transplant in Children?"
Rebecca Levit, "Augmenting Heart Allograft Lymphatics To Prevent Coronary Artery Vasculopathy (CAV)."
May Wang, "Developing a Comprehensive Biomedical Imaging Informatics Tool for Precision Care of Pediatric Heart Transplant Patients."
Nina Guzzetta, "Reducing HLA Sensitization in Children with Congenital Heart Disease to Improve Viability of Donor Hearts."

HeRO Pediatric Research Alliance Awarded Pilots (31 Total)

2024

Xu Liu, "Determining Cardioprotective Effects of Novel Modulators for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Using iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes."
Yusuf Yaras, "Laser-Assisted Microcatheter Devices for Cardiac Ablation and Perforation: A Novel Approach to Treating Congenital Heart Diseases and Arrhythmias."

2022

Holly Bauser-Heaton, "Prediction of PDA morphology changes during transcatheter PDA stenting."

2021

Michael Wolf, "Red Blood Cell Transfusion Thresholds After Neonatal and Infant Cardiac Surgery."
Jennifer Kwong, "The Mitochondrial Citrate Carrier: A Novel Factor in Congenital Heart Disease."

2019

Chunhui Xu "Modeling Chemotherapy-induced Cardiotoxicity using Human iPSC-derived Cardiomyocytes."
Holly Bauser-Heaton and Vahid Serpooshan,"A 3D Bioprinted In Vitro Model of Pediatric Pulmonary Vein Stenosis."

2017

Erin Buckley, "Improved Brain Monitoring after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest."
Josh Maxwell, "Enhancing the Regenerative Potential of Pediatric Cardiac Progenitor Cells"

2016

Changwon Park, "Myct1, A Novel Player for Cardiovascular Development."
Pamela D. Winterberg, "Role of Dysregulated Arginine Metabolism in Uremic Cardiomyopathy."

2015

Guy Benian,"Candidate Genes for Cardiomyopathy."
Hyacinth, Hyacinth, "In Vivo Imaging and Identification of Cerebral Vasculopathy in Murine Sickle Cell Disease."
Bahig M. Shehata, Greg Gibson and Shri Deshpande, "Genetic Analysis to Identify Causal Mutations in Histiocytoid Cardiomyopathy."

2014

David Archer and Taylor, W. Robert, "Impaired Collateral Vessel Formation in an Animal Model of Sickle Cell Disease."
Baowei Fei,"Cardiac Fiber Imaging Using Ultrasound and DTI."
Cassandra Josephson, "The Impact of Weight Loss on Arterial Health in Morbidly Obese Adolescents."

2013

Luke P. Brewster, "The Impact of Weight Loss on Arterial Health in Morbidly Obese Adolescents."
Hanjoong Jo, "Identification of Novel Biomarkers for Pediatric Heart Transplant Rejection."
Jean Kwun, "Prevention of Antibody Mediated Rejection in Cardiac Transplant Recipients."
May D. Wang, "Genomic Characterization of Inflammatory Response and Prediction of Clinical Outcome after Infant Cardiac Surgery."

2012

Nina Guzzetta, "An In-depth Analysis of Fibrin Networks in Neonates Before and After Cardiopulmonary Bypass."
Yanggan Wang, "New Approach for Ventricular Arrhythmia Treatment in Heart Failure."

2011

Kevin Maher, "Hemodynamic Characterization of Valve Placement in the Fontan Circulation."
William Mahle,"Neural Correlates of Executive Function in Teens with Congenital Heart Disease."
Mary Wagner,"Cardiac Regeneration as a Novel Treatment for Children with HLHS."
Yanggan Wang,"Kv4.3 Blocks Oxidation-dependent Cardiac caMKII Activation."

2010

Michael Davis and Guoliang Ding, "Microparticle Delivery of Antioxidants for Treatment of Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in the Neonatal Heart."
Mary Wagner," Cardiac Regeneration as a Novel Treatment for Children with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome."
Yanggan Wang; Ronald Joyner; Gang Bao, "The Kv4.3-CaMKII Functional Unit in Heart: A Regulatory Mechanism for CaMKII Activation."
Young-sup Yoon, Ronald Joyner, "Identification of Surface Molecular Signatures of Ventricular Cardiomyocytes and Specific Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells Into Centricular Cardiomyocytes."