Dr. Vaisar’s research focuses on examining the role of metabolic diseases in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. Specifically, his research centers on the relation of diabetes, lipoproteins metabolism and the role lipoproteins in the accelerated development of cardiovascular disease in diabetes. His research further focuses on application of state-of-the-art quantitative mass spectrometric techniques to basic, translational as well as clinical studies.
Current projects focus on:
- HDL as a carrier of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease.This project focuses on development and application of quantitative proteomic methods to discovery of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. Unlike whole plasma, HDL is a simple proteome of up to 100 proteins which is in the causal pathway of cardiovascular disease. Quantitative assessment of HDL proteome can therefore provide biomarkers for disease diagnosis as well as markers of therapeutic intervention efficacy.
- Role of diabetes and inflammation in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseasewith particular focus on the role of HDL and its interactions with cells in the atherosclerotic lesions (macrophages, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells). Inflammation is one of the hallmarks of atherosclerosis and is associated with major changes in the HDL protein composition, activation of cells in the arterial wall, and increased production of proteases in the atherosclerotic lesions. We are addressing questions of how the changes in HDL composition affect its anti-atherogenic properties and what is the role of proteolysis in the progression of atherosclerosis.
To address these questions his lab is using state of the art techniques including functional assessment of the HDL in macrophages and endothelial cells, lipoprotein particle analysis (HDL-P) using calibrated differential ion mobility analysis (cIMA) for direct lipoprotein particle measurement, and targeted quantitative methods for lipoprotein proteome analysis.
- Applications of quantitative proteomics to clinical and translational studies. This research focuses on development of quantitative liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry based assays (SRM-LCMS, Data-independent analysis, DIA) for quantification of proteins in lipoproteins, blood, as well as in urine, for discovery and validation as biomarkers of diabetes accelerated cardiovascular disease and diabetic kidney disease.
