News and Congratulations
CTSC KL2 Alumnus, Alexander Merkler, MD, has received a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association for his research titled “Unrecognized Myocardial Infarction May Be a Novel Risk Factor for Ischemic Stroke” which is an extension of the research he conducted as a KL2 Scholar with the CTSC. The research is aimed at evaluating whether unrecognized myocardial infarction can cause ischemic stroke. Currently, as many as one-fifth of all ischemic strokes cannot be attributed to a specific cause and are classified as cryptogenic. Such cryptogenic strokes remain a common clinical challenge affecting more than 170,000 Americans each year. Failure to identify the etiology of stroke leads to an increased risk of recurrent ischemic stroke and death. Identifying unrecognized myocardial infarction as a novel cause of stroke may lead to improved stroke preventive measures and thereby lessen the burden of cerebrovascular disease.
Dr. Merkler is an Assistant Professor with the department of Neurology at WCM. While funded by the CTSC KL2 Career Development Award Alex had mentoring support from Hooman Kamel, MD; Constantino Iadecola, MD; and Katherine Panageas, DrPH.
The CTSC KL2 Career Development Core Program supports junior faculty and senior residents and fellows by providing salary support, protected time, advanced degree training and practical skills necessary to conduct interdisciplinary Clinical and Translational Investigation in a team research environment.