Huebsch earns AHA Career Development Award
Nate Huebsch, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will receive $230,000 to support research on exercise-induced sudden cardiac death
Nate Huebsch, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at McKelvey School of Engineering, has received the 2019 Career Development Award from the American Heart Association (AHA).
Huebsch joined Washington University in St. Louis from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an associate project specialist in the Department of Bioengineering. His research currently focuses on basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology and 3-D models heart-on-a-chip models derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
He'll receive more than $230,000 over three years in support of his project studying a how exercise leads to sudden death in patients with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, a genetic disease that is one of the most common causes of sudden cardiac death in young athletes.
"This is the first external grant my lab has received, and I'm extremely grateful to the American Heart Association for giving us the opportunity to build our research program,” Huebsch said.
Huebsch’s team has created a model that will allow them to test the impact of certain drugs on cardiac tissue that has been stretched to mimic the effects of exercise. The goal is to better understand the connection between heart muscle stretch and arrhythmia, which will aid in the development of improved treatments for arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.
Huebsch joined Washington University in St. Louis from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was an associate project specialist in the Department of Bioengineering. His research currently focuses on basic and translational stem cell mechanobiology and 3-D models heart-on-a-chip models derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.
The Career Development Award aims to help rising health care and academic professionals develop the research skills to support and enhance their chances to obtain and retain a high-quality career position.