Affiliation: University of Virginia

Dr. Santosh Karnewar received his BS and MS from Osmania University, India.  He completed his PhD from AcSIR, India, where he investigated the molecular and signaling mechanisms of oxidative stress and age-associated endothelial dysfunction in the development of atherosclerosis.

He then joined the laboratory of Dr. Gary Owens to strengthen his knowledge in the cardiovascular field. Dr. Owens is internationally recognized for his work in investigating the mechanisms regulating vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation and phenotypic transitions, and how these transitions impact the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Given his expertise in cell biology and atherosclerosis and the Owens’ lab SMC and EC-lineage tracing mouse models, Dr. Karnewar decided to pursue the projects on “Role of smooth muscle cell and endothelial cell modulation in advanced atherosclerotic plaque stability by using novel lineage tracing mouse models”. The cellular and acellular composition of the atherosclerotic plaque is critical to plaque stability and likelihood of a rupture event. His current research focuses on three aspects of atherosclerotic plaque composition 1) In depth study of SMC phenotypes using scRNA-seq, Cy-TOF technology, Telo-FISH, 2) understanding the composition changes that occur during regression of atherosclerotic lesions, and 3) How impaired insulin signaling and/or NFkB-mediated pro-inflammatory signaling in perivascular cells and EC impacts on atherosclerotic lesion pathogenesis. Throughout his doctoral and postdoctoral experience, he has successfully trained at least 7 undergraduate and 3 graduate students.  Dr. Karnewar is planning to start his own laboratory and lead a research team focused on further understanding the role of inflammation and aging in cardiovascular diseases. He has 22 primary research papers and 3 patents granted that in aggregate have been cited ~800 times. His google scholar citation, H-index is 14.https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qh0mnnUAAAAJ&hl=en