Dr. Mondal receives High-Impact Innovative Research Award from AHA

Dr. Nandan Kumar Mondal, MS, MPhil, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Circulatory Support at Baylor College of Medicine, has been honored with the prestigious 2024 AHA Innovative Research Award, a testament to his groundbreaking work in the field. Titled “MasSpec Pen for real-time non-invasive assessment of ischemic injury in human hearts for DCD Transplantation,” This award provides substantial financial support of $200,000 over a two-year period to conduct the proposed study.

The AHA Innovative Research Award supports high-impact pioneering research that could lead to critical discoveries or major advancements in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research. In this research initiative, Dr. Mondal, along with Drs. Livia Eberlin and Kenneth Liao, plans to conduct basic science research on human donor hearts using MSPen technology to assess myocardial injury and monitor donor quality in real-time. This research aims to make a remarkable impact in DCD heart transplantation by providing a reliable and quick method of assessing myocardial injury before transplantation. By expanding the donor pool through DCD heart transplantation, more patients will have the opportunity to receive life-saving heart transplants, which holds tremendous promise in achieving safe and precision transplantation.