our Training
Clonal Hematopoiesis and Atherosclerosis

In addition to our efforts in scientific discovery and therapeutic exploration in CH and atherosclerosis, the training and education of emerging investigators is an essential goal of our network.

We expect that the interweaving of basic and clinical studies in network collaborations will provide excellent training for young scientists.

We have established an early stage investigator program, led by Dr Oliver Soehnlein. This program will feature a mentorship and training plan with a dedicated budget and structured review process to support travel and collaborations between network laboratories. Junior members of the Network can apply to the Travel and Collaboration program here.
This program will feature a mentorship and training plan with a dedicated budget and structured review process to support travel and collaborations between network laboratories.

Dr. Nan Wang

graduated from Shandong Medical College in China and then obtained his Ph.D from University of Illinois at Chicago. Following the postdoctoral training in NCI of NIH in Bethesda, MD, he moved to Columbia University Medical Center, working in Dr. Alan Tall’s lab in Department of Medicine. He is currently Associate Professor of Medical Sciences at CUMC. His main research interest is atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. His earlier work was to evaluate the role of HDL metabolism and mechanisms responsible for regulation of cellular cholesterol efflux in atherogenesis. Currently, his research is focused on assessing genetic polymorphisms or mutations that affect atherogenesis by modulating hematopoiesis and inflammatory responses.

Tetsushi Nakao

is a research fellow interested in the basics and therapeutic development of vascular diseases, especially from the aspects of inflammation. He aims to integrate conventional and developing methods including in vivo, in vitro, genetics or new sequencing technologies to promote understanding of the mechanisms that lead to developing therapies of cardiovascular diseases. He graduated from Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University in 2006, thereafter finished his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology in Japan. He completed his Ph.D. work at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine in 2017, investigating the contribution of microRNA-33 in abdominal aortic aneurysm. He is supported by The Uehara Memorial Foundation Research Fellowship.

Wenli Liu

earned her BS and MD degrees from Tianjin Medical University in 2013 and 2018, respectively. She now works as a postdoctoral research scientist studying the molecular mechanisms of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) and CH-associated cardiovascular diseases in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Tall at Columbia University. Her current focus is modeling the effect of Jak2VF on erythropoiesis and atherosclerosis. Her hope is that her research will continue to contribute to the groundwork for developing cardiac therapies that will benefit the tens of millions of patients who suffer from cardiovascular disease. When not at the bench, Dr. Liu enjoys cooking spicy foods.

Amy Lin

obtained her HBSc at the Department of Immunology, University of Toronto and  her MD/PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Tak Mak at the University of Toronto. Upon completion of Internal Medicine Residency training at the University of Toronto, she moved to Boston for Cardiology Fellowship training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is now a postdoctoral research fellow in Cardiovascular Medicine and Hematology with Prof. Benjamin Ebert, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Kanako Wakahasi

is a hematologist and postdoctoral fellow in the Hidalgo laboratory at CNIC. She has studied hematopoietic niche in bone marrow and myelofibrosis/osteosclerosis complicated with myeloproliferative neoplasm. She would like to reveal how innate immune cells communicate with the hematopoietic niche in bone marrow, and whether this process is altered during Clonal Hematopoiesis.

Jayakrishanan Gopakumar

is at Stanford University with Dr. Siddhartha Jaiswal’s lab, where he is interested in exploring how loss of function of epigenetic modifiers with opposing functions, namely Tet2 and DNMT3a, converge in a subset of hematopoietic stem cells on a similar atherogenic phenotype

Iván Ballesteros

did his graduate studies on Biology and Master studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, working on the role of innate immunity in stroke under the supervision of Dr. María Angeles Moro.  After a postdoctoral position at the Kings College London and at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center he joined the laboratory of Dr. Andrés Hidalgo to explore the heterogeneity of neutrophils under homeostasis.