A $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will enable researchers from three USC schools to develop a way to protect at-risk individuals from arterial plaque buildup that leads to heart attack and stroke.

The researchers hope to find a way to identify and treat clinically asymptomatic individuals in the prime of life before they develop acute coronary syndromes.

Principal investigator Tzung Hsiai of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering will work with Enrique Cadenas of the USC School of Pharmacy and Howard Hodis of the Keck School of Medicine of USC to study how biomechanical and biochemical factors initiate atherosclerosis.

“Ultimately, our goal is to develop micro- and nano-sensors that will enable prediction, early detection and prevention of acute coronary disease,” said Hsiai, who holds the Robert G. and Mary G. Lane Early Career Chair in the Viterbi School's department of biomedical engineering.

The research will begin by attempting to unravel the complicated interlocking factors that cause coronary artery disease, sometimes called “hardening of the arteries.”

“Hemodynamics, or blood flow, a host of biochemical reactions and inflammatory processes play important roles in the nature of coronary artery disease,” Hsiai explained. “The integration of biomedical engineering and oxidative biology as well as the testing of hypotheses with dynamic models strengthen our cross-disciplinary research.”

Cadenas, the Charles Krown/Pharmacy Alumni Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences in the School of Pharmacy, hailed the collaboration. “Dr. Hsiai’s engineering and medical backgrounds offer a distinctive approach to heart disease, a tremendous complement to the perspectives offered by Dr. Hodis’ and my groups.”

This NIH award is the first for Hsiai as the primary investigator. Cardenas and Hodis have had NIH funding for more than 15 years.

Cadenas and Hsiai have secondary appointments in the Keck School, where Hsiai is also an attending cardiologist.

Hodis, the Harry J. Bauer and Dorothy Bauer Rawlins Professor of Cardiology in the Keck School of Medicine and director of the USC Atherosclerosis Research Unit, said, “This project provides especially unique, dynamic research with the potential to find new intervention targets for early prevention of cardiovascular disease.”