# Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program

> **NIH NIH T32** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $448,991

## Abstract

The Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh (UPitt) is seeking continued support for a
predoctoral training program (8 positions/year) aimed at educating talented students from engineering and
other quantitative sciences for careers in biomedical research in the cardiovascular area. UPitt has been at
the forefront of education and research in this field, with two key components contributing to this status.
First, a mechanism is in place whereby our students are exposed first-hand to clinical problems requiring
bioengineering input for their solution within various medical disciplines. Second, there continues to be a
significant Institutional commitment to these research and educational endeavors. The proposed program is
interdisciplinary in nature. Although the Program is housed in the Department of Bioengineering, the training
faculty is drawn from several departments: Anesthesiology, Bioengineering, Chemical & Mechanical
Engineering, Critical Care Medicine, Developmental Biology, Medicine, Pathology, Pharmacology, and
Surgery. The participating faculty members are (bio)engineers, physiologists/biophysicists, cell/molecular
and systems/synthetic biologists, cardiologists, pathologists, and pulmonologists, with vigorous and well-
funded research programs. There are three focus areas of this Program: (1) Basic understanding and
quantitative characterization of native (normal and pathological conditions) and perturbed (i.e., with
deployment of man-made devices or constructs) cardiovascular function at various levels of organization
(molecules-to-whole organ/organism), (2) Imaging for functional assessment at various levels of
organization (molecules-to-whole organ/organism), and (3) Design and optimization of artificial devices and
constructs (mechanical, tissue-engineered, and hybrid). The current proposal includes additional focus on
systems/synthetic biology and a continued emphasis on biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship, which
is consistent with the significant translational research performed by the Program faculty and trainees.
Although most Program trainees have (bio)engineering background, some come from other disciplines
(e.g., biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics). Program coursework (10 didactic courses + workshops) is
designed to provide both breadth and depth in engineering and biological sciences and includes a formal
exposure to biostatistics, bioethics, and professional and career development issues. A novel aspect of the
Program is that students are required to formally participate in a clinical experience (Clinical Internship and
Rotation). Thus, the training program provides a unique educational and research experience with respect
to basic and applied cardiovascular engineering and sciences. Finally, each student receives extensive
research training in the laboratories of the training faculty. Thirty-one predoctoral trainees have participated
in the Program during the current funding cycle (September 1,...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10757705
- **Project number:** 5T32HL076124-17
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** SANJEEV G SHROFF
- **Activity code:** T32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $448,991
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2005-08-01 → 2028-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10757705

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10757705, Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program (5T32HL076124-17). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10757705. Licensed CC0.

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