The National Institutes of Health has awarded William Meador, a graduate student working with Assistant Professor Manuel Rausch, with a Ruth L. Kirschstein-NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship (F31) for his project entitled, "Tricuspid valve adaptation to right heart disease."
Meador studies whether tricuspid heart valve leaflets remodel and grow in response to heart disease. Specifically, Meador uses microstructural and biomechanical evaluations of the tricuspid valve leaflets to understand leaflet growth and remodeling in response to functional tricuspid regurgitation, which is present in a significant portion of the population.
While researchers have a better understanding of the mitral valve remodeling response in left heart disease, less is known about what happens on the right side of the heart. Meador’s work will help determine if tricuspid regurgitation alters tricuspid leaflet tissue, providing a better understanding for the development of tricuspid valve-specific therapeutics and medical devices to treat heart disease.
Meador is co-sponsored on this grant by Professor Michael Sacks. Before attending The University of Texas at Austin, Meador received a B.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
