Researcher Spotlight: Shing Fai Chan, PhD
Shing Fai Chan, PhD, assistant research professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and an investigator with the Ischemic Heart Disease Research Team at Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center won first place in the Early Investigator Competition at the inaugural Krannert Biennial in May 2023.
His presentation, “Hemorrhagic Myocardial Infarction Drives Lipomatous Metaplasia of Infarcted Myocardium,” described how microvascular injury following reperfusion as a stronger predictor of major adverse cardiovascular events, including chronic heart failure.
Chan began working at IU School of Medicine as a research fellow in January 2018 and joined IU Krannert in October 2021. His research focuses on the time dependent signaling cascade events that follow a heart attack or myocardial infarction (MI). He is interested in understanding the molecular and cellular pathways activated in the heart during ischemia-reperfusion injury and how these processes contribute to cardiac remodeling, repair and function over time.
Chen's research contributions to the Ischemic Heart Disease Research Team led to a better understanding about the time-dependent signaling cascade of events that follow a heart attack.
"By focusing on the molecular pathways involved in the acute and chronic phases of MI, I have helped elucidate how cellular responses such as inflammation, microRNA dysregulation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction, drive tissue damage and repair processes in the heart," Chan said.
Early investigators recognized
Shing Fai Chan, PhD, an investigator with the Krannert Cardiovascular Research Center received 1st place honors in the Krannert Biennial Early Investigator Competition. Wesley Anderson, MD, and Asad Torabi, MD, with the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at IU School of Medicine, received 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Other IU School of Medicine participants included Conner Earl, MD/PhD student, Gabriel Gruionu, PhD, Yuheng Huang, MS, PhD candidate, Mark R. Kauth, MD and Varun Rao, PhD. Subha Raman, MD, former division chief and director of the IU Health / IU School of Medicine Cardiovascular Institute, awarded and congratulated them at the conclusion of the competition.
