Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease that causes the build-up of plaques in the artery walls and is the underlying cause of cardiovascular mortality. Inhye’s fellowship will allow her to investigate the mechanism of action of resident macrophages in the artery, which are thought to alleviate inflammation and facilitate cholesterol metabolism in the vessel wall. She will use bioinformatics methods for target discovery and in vitro and in vivo validation using iPSC-derived macrophages and murine models for her new project.
“If we can identify the molecular mechanism that regulates athero-protective properties in resident vascular macrophages, we can use this to identify new potential therapeutic targets for attenuating atherogenesis. This is a huge opportunity to address one of the leading causes of cardiovascular mortality and I’m grateful to Novo Nordisk for their support of this project,” said Inhye.
The project is a collaboration between the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology and the Novo Nordisk Research Centre Oxford.