2025 Amyloidosis Forum Annual Meeting

Adam Castaño, MD MS is Vice President in Global Clinical Development at BridgeBio Pharma. He is a board-certified cardiologist, amyloid specialist, and biopharmaceutical professional dedicated to the singular unifying purpose of bringing about innovative therapies and breakthroughs that improve patients’ lives.

Previously he led cardiovascular and rare disease R&D and medical programs in cardiac amyloidosis at Pfizer Inc. and in atherosclerosis and pulmonary hypertension at Merck & Co. His leadership has led to the successful development and delivery of small molecule, biologic, and novel macrocyclic peptide platforms spanning multiple stages of R&D, including first-in-human, phase 2, 3, and 4. He also served as Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Cardiac Amyloidosis at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and has authored over 30 original manuscripts and the first-ever textbook chapter on cardiac amyloidosis in Braunwald’s Heart Failure.

Personally, Adam enjoys living in New York City’s Upper East Side with his wife Maria, son Marty, and Norwich Terrier, Buzz Aldrin. He enjoys nature, tennis, backgammon, science fiction novels, traveling the world, and the cultivation of great conversations with friends over wine and good food.

Angela Dispenzieri, M.D., is a consultant in the Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic. She has joint appointments in the Division of Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and the Department of Molecular Medicine. Dr. Dispenzieri holds the academic rank of Professor of Medicine and of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and she is recognized with the distinction of a named professorship, the Serene M. and Frances C. Durling Professorship. She joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 1998 and served as Chair of Hematology Research from 2014 to 2022. She served as the President of the International Society of Amyloidosis from 2016 to 2018, and currently chairs the Mayo Clinic Amyloid Interest Group.

Dr. Verma is a clinician-investigator interested in chronic kidney disease (CKD), renal amyloidosis, cardiorenal syndrome, diabetic kidney disease (DKD), renal physiology, and electrolyte abnormalities. Dr. Verma’s research projects include epidemiologic investigations utilizing large databases and translational and patient-oriented research projects. Ongoing studies include predictors of CKD progression using CRIC cohort and UK biobank, predictors of mortality using NHANES, a Physiology study examining the role of Kidney Function Reserve and renal plasma flow in phenotyping chronic kidney disease, and the role of intravitreal VEGF inhibitors in causing nephrotoxicity, and renal physiology of decongestion in patients with Acute decompensated heart failure(ADHF). Dr. Verma is a member of the APRC committee for the Framingham Heart Study, the Renal subgroup for clinical endpoints in Amyloidosis for the Amyloidosis research consortium, and the Membership Committee for Kidney in Cardiovascular Medicine for the American Heart Association. He is on the Editorial Board of Therapeutic Advances in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease, Plos One, and BMC Medicine. 

I am an MD and a cardiologist by training, with a PhD in medical sciences from the University of Bologna (Italy).  

Since I was a medical student, I developed profound interest in systemic amyloidosis, a group of rare disorders caused by protein misfolding, with great impact on patients’ quality of life and life span. In the last 15+ years I have dedicated my career to untangling the diagnostic challenges and treatment options for different forms of amyloidosis affecting the heart. My PhD project was indeed aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac amyloidosis. 

I have worked at three major international Centers of Exellence for amyloidosis (Bologna, Italy; Boston, USA; London, UK) and I have become a worldwide recognized expert in the field, with over 70 publications in peer reviewed journals of high impact, including JACC, Circulation and NEJM. I have contributed to international guidelines for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of amyloidosis.  

In 2019, I joined Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, attracted by the development of CAEL-101 for the treatment of AL amyloidosis, with the ambition of delivering first and best in class treatment to patients affected by this dreadful disease.  

At Alexion, I am a Senior Director in Clinical Development and Translational Sciences; I am the Global Clinical Lead for the CAEL-101 program (AL amyloidosis), NI006 program in partnership with Neurimmune AG (ATTR amyloidosis), and I serve as Medical Advisor for ALXN-2060 program (ATTR amyloidosis).  

I have contributed profoundly to the internal education on amyloidosis and to advance the pipeline dedicated to amyloidosis. I represent the Company in the FDA-Amyloidosis Research Consortium (ARC) partnership to identify surrogate endpoints for AL amyloidosis and imaging endpoints for ATTR amyloidosis.  

I am excited every day because in my job I can combine a scientifically driven approach with a strong patient-focused culture. I follow the science to bring best care to patients affected by systemic amyloidosis 

As the Senior Vice President for Clinical Research, Christine spearheads the American Heart Association’s externally funded research programs in Implementation Science, Clinical Trials, and Real-World Data Analysis. Her division focuses on harnessing AHA’s extensive network of over 2,900 U.S. hospitals and 1,800 outpatient clinics to drive impactful research. Christine and her Clinical Research team collaborate closely with investigators and sponsors to utilize AHA’s unique strengths in addressing critical challenges in cardiovascular medicine, including systems change, the adoption of novel therapies, clinical trial acceleration, and enhancing diversity. Previously, Christine served as the Vice President for Health Information Technology and Real-World Evidence, where she managed AHA registries and related research initiatives.

Eli Muchtar, M.D., is a board-eligible hematologist with expertise in several hematological diseases, both malignant and benign. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic School of Medicine. 

Dr. Eli Muchtar completed his MD degree at the Beer Sheva University of the Negev in June of 2008. He completed his internal medicine residency at Rabin Medical Center in 2012. From 2012 till 2015, he has been a fellow in the hematology/oncology fellowship program at Rabin Medical Center. Dr. Muchtar is certified in Internal Medicine (2012) and Hematology (2015) with the Israeli Ministry of Health. He joined Mayo Clinic in 2015, initially as a research trainee, and then in 2017 joined as Consultant in the Division of Hematology. 

Dr. Muchtar’s clinical practice focuses on the management of patients with multiple myeloma, AL amyloidosis, lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma, MGUS, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, large granular lymphocytic leukemia, cryoglobulinemia, hairy cell leukemia and other rare form of hematological diseases. Dr. Muchtar main research interests are AL amyloidosis and multiple myeloma. 

Frederick L. Ruberg, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Boston University (BU) School of Medicine and clinical cardiologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC), specializing in cardiac imaging and infiltrative heart disease. He attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, completed internal medicine training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, cardiovascular disease fellowship at Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, and a fellowship in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Ruberg has an active clinical practice as the senior cardiologist in the BU/BMC Amyloidosis Center. He is Associate Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine for Academic Affairs, Associate Director of the Cardiovascular Medicine Fellowship program, director of the cardiac MRI program at BMC. Dr. Ruberg also directs the Pilot Grants Program of the Boston University Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He is also Senior Associate Editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging and a Fellow of the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. His NIH and industry funded research program applies non-invasive cardiac imaging for amyloidosis identification and clinical care optimization.

Dr. Ruberg is committed to raising awareness of cardiac amyloidosis among clinicians and the general population so as to afford early diagnosis and enhanced access to disease modifying therapies.

Isabelle Lousada has been the driving force behind ARC, building successful collaborations and programs across the sectors to advance the science and understanding of the amyloidosis diseases.

Isabelle was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis and was one of the first patients to successfully undergo a stem cell transplant. For the past twenty years she has been committed to empowering other patients while serving on several boards and committees, speaking at leadership meetings and key events to encourage research, increase access, and support the critical and unmet needs of amyloidosis patients.

Dr. Jan Griffin specializes in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. She is an associate professor of medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina where she acts as director of the MUSC Cardiac Amyloidosis Center of Excellence. Her research focuses on infiltrative cardiomyopathies, particularly cardiac amyloidosis and cardiac sarcoidosis.

Jeremy Slivnick, MD, is a board-certified cardiologist specializing in cardiac imaging. Dr. Slivnick uses advanced imaging, such as cardiac magnetic resonance (MRI), computed tomography (CT) and echocardiography, to accurately evaluate and diagnose a wide range of heart and vascular diseases. Using advanced imaging techniques, he is able to study the heart’s function in order to help identify what treatment would be best for his patents. Dr. Slivnick has a particular interest in using his cardiac imaging expertise to help understand conditions such as cardiac amyloidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, congenital heart diseases and more.

In addition to his clinical efforts, Dr. Slivnick also conducts research focused on leveraging the strengths of cardiac imaging techniques to deliver precision care to patients with heart disease. His work is primarily focused on using advanced cardiovascular imaging techniques to improve the diagnosis and evaluation of heart failure including cardiac amyloidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and cardiac sarcoidosis. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed, respected journals, including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology Cardiovascular Imaging, Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, Journal of the American Heart Association, American Journal of Cardiology and the International Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging.

Jersey Chen is a cardiologist with a masters in public health. He is currently the Global Clinical Head for Wainua (eplontersen). He has worked at AstraZeneca over the past decade in clinical development in cardiovascular programs such as Brilinta and Forxiga.

Joban Vaishnav is an advanced heart failure/transplant cardiologist and Director of the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Amyloidosis Center. Dr. Vaishnav earned her medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she also completed fellowships in cardiology and advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. Dr. Vaishnav is extremely dedicated to the care of patients with advanced heart failure and cardiac amyloidosis. In her role as Director of the JHU Comprehensive Amyloidosis Center, she collaborates with a large multidisciplinary team in the care of patients with cardiac amyloidosis. She is partaking in ongoing multicenter amyloidosis clinical trials. Her personal research interests include investigating novel disease mechanisms and treatment response in transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis. She has received grant funding from Pfizer and the Amyloidosis Foundation. 

Dr. John Vest joined Alnylam in 2015 and is currently Vice President of Clinical Research. He serves as the Global Clinical Lead for the ATTR Amyloidosis Franchise. In this role Dr. Vest oversees both the clinical development strategy and clinical trial execution for Alnylam’s innovative RNAi therapeutics targeting transthyretin. He has played an instrumental role in multiple pivotal Phase 3 studies of ONPATTRO and vutrisiran. Before joining Alnylam, he worked in the Cardiovascular Translational Medicine group at Novartis where he played a key clinical role in developing the company’s early stage pipeline of compounds in the cardiovascular space. Prior to his career in industry, Dr. Vest spent over 16 years in the study and practice of medicine. Dr. Vest received his MD from Columbia University where he went on to complete a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease. He subsequently completed sub-specialty training in Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital before returning to Columbia where he joined the faculty of the Cardiology Division.

Originally from El Paso, Texas, Dr. Grodin holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his medical degree at UT Southwestern, where he also completed internal medicine residency training. He completed advanced training through two fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic, one in cardiovascular disease and one in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. Dr. Grodin also holds a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in cardiovascular disease, advanced heart failure, and transplant cardiology, and by the National Board of Echocardiography, Dr. Grodin joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2016. 

His clinical focus is in cardiac amyloidosis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, advanced heart failure, cardiac transplantation, left-ventricular assist devices, and cardiac critical care. 

In addition, Dr. Grodin splits his professional time as a clinical epidemiologist focusing on heart failure outcomes research. One of the primary objectives of his research includes identifying subclinical markers of risk across a spectrum of heart failure severity and in transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis patients. He leads multicenter epidemiological research studies including clinical trials for transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis  and serves on international steering committees for cardiac amyloidosis research consortia. He also serves as site-PI for international registry studies and clinical trials testing novel treatments for transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis. 

Dr. Grodin’s other research interests include heart failure, the treatment of acute heart failure, cardiorenal syndrome, and metabolic and hemodynamic biomarkers of heart failure.  

His research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, foundation grants, and industry since 2018. 

Dr. Grodin has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. He serves as an Associate Editor for Circulation, a Section Editor for Current Heart Failure Reports, and on the Editorial Board for Amyloid. He is also an ad-hoc reviewer for dozens of journals.   

Dr. Grodin is a member of the American College of Cardiology, the Heart Failure Society of America, and the International Society for Amyloidosis. 

Dr. Maurer is a general internist and geriatric cardiologist with advanced training in heart failure and cardiac transplantation. He is the Arnold and Arlene Goldstein Professor of Cardiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, where directs the Clinical Cardiovascular Research Laboratory for the Elderly (CCRLE). Dr. Maurer is a member of the Advanced Cardiac Care Center at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia Campus.

He has published over 350 articles including peer reviewed manuscripts, reviews and book chapters. He was Chair of the American College of Cardiology’s Geriatric Cardiology Member Section, which is the largest organization dedicated to advancing the care of older adults with cardiovascular disease. He was co-chair of the Steering Committee of the ATTR-ACT trial showing tafamidis was a safe and effective therapy for transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy. Throughout his career, he has promulgated an approach to older adults with cardiovascular disease that offers the best of both geriatric and cardiovascular medicine in which a comprehensive holistic approach to enhance functional capacity and quality of life is at the forefront of emerging techniques to address cardiovascular physiologic derangement that disproportionately afflict older adults.

Mike Petrassi has extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, with a focus on medicinal and organic chemistry. Mike is currently the Vice President of Chemistry at Protego Biopharma, a position they have held since November 2021. Previously, from March to August 2021, they served as the Site Head for San Diego and Chemistry VP at Treeline Biosciences. Before that, from August 2019 to March 2021, Mike was the Vice President of Medicinal Chemistry at Calibr at Scripps Research. Mike also worked at the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr) from January 2016 to August 2019, where they held the position of Director of Medicinal Chemistry. Prior to Calibr, Mike was at GNF as an Associate Director from March 2014 to January 2016, and before that, they were a Group Leader and Chemistry Outsourcing Liaison from June 2003 to February 2014. Their career in the industry started at Locus Pharmacueticals, where they worked as a Scientist from February 2002 to June 2003. Throughout their career, Mike has demonstrated expertise in chemistry and leadership roles within various organizations. 

Mike Petrassi earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1996. Following that, they pursued a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Scripps Research, completing their doctoral studies from 1997 to 2001. In 1996, they also briefly attended Texas A&M University to study Chemistry, but it doesn’t specify if they obtained a degree from there. 

Mitchell Psotka, MD, PhD is System Section Chief of Heart Failure and Transplant, and Director of the Infiltrative Cardiomyopathy Center, at the Inova Heart and Vascular Institute in Falls Church, Virginia. He also is a Medical Officer in the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the United States Food and Drug Administration. He specializes in heart failure, heart transplant, mechanical circulatory support, pulmonary hypertension, and infiltrative cardiomyopathies, as well as clinical trial methodologies. He received his medical degree and Doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and completed his residency and fellowship training in internal medicine, cardiology, advanced heart failure and transplant, pulmonary hypertension, and clinical research at the University of California San Francisco.

Nelson Leung, M.D., is a professor of medicine and a consultant in the divisions of nephrology and hypertension, and hematology. He graduated from Creighton University School of Medicine in 1994 and completed his residency and fellowship training at the University of Iowa and Mayo Clinic. He is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology, and has a special interest in renal diseases related to plasma cell dyscrasias, such as amyloidosis, light chain deposition disease, and monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance. 

Dr. Leung has published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters on these topics, and has received numerous awards for his teaching and research excellence. 

Additionally, Dr. Leung is the founder and president of the International Kidney and Monoclonal Gammopathy Research Group, a collaborative network of researchers dedicated to advancing the knowledge and treatment of these disorders. 

Prem Soman is tenured Professor of Medicine, and Clinical & Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh, Associate Chief of Cardiology (faculty development), Director of the Multidisciplinary Cardiac Amyloidosis Center, and Director of Nuclear Cardiology and the Cardiac Imaging Fellowship the at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

After initial medical training in India, he was a clinical research fellow at the Northwick Park Hospital and Institute of Medical Research at Harrow, London, UK, where he obtained a PhD. His Cardiology and Advanced Imaging Fellowships in the US were at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, after which he joined the faculty at UPMC in 2005.

Dr. Soman practices clinical cardiology (focusing on amyloid heart disease and coronary artery disease), nuclear cardiology and echocardiography at UPMC. His research interest is in the use of imaging in heart diseases. Dr. Soman has co-authored numerous original research papers, guidelines, reviews and textbook chapters. He is an Associate Editor of Circulation CV Imaging.

He was the President of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology in 2018, and previously, Chair of the Imaging Council of the ACC, and President of the CV Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. He is a recipient of the Hermann Blumgart award for distinguished service to nuclear cardiology from the CV Council of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging in 2016 and the Outstanding Educator award in 2022.

Rajshekhar Chakraborty, MD is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the division of hematology/oncology. Dr. Chakraborty cares primarily for patients with plasma cells disorders, including multiple myeloma, AL amyloidosis, monoclonal gammopathy of clinical significance, and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. His research interests include clinical trials and outcomes research in plasma cell disorders.

Ricardo Rocha, MD, FAHA has extensive experience in the medical field. Ricardo is currently serving as the Head of Medical Affairs at Intellia Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to this, they worked at Novartis for several years, holding various roles such as Regional Medical Head for Latin America and Canada, Vice President and Head of the Cardiorenal and Metabolism Medical Unit, and Head of US Clinical Development & Medical Affairs. Ricardo also served as Disease Area Head for Heart Failure and Executive Medical Director for LCZ696 at Novartis. Additionally, Dr. Rocha worked at Pharmacia/Pfizer as an Associate Medical Director and Principal Scientist in the Cardiovascular Discovery department. Throughout their career, they have demonstrated strong leadership skills and expertise in cardiovascular and metabolic therapies. 

Ricardo Rocha, MD, FAHA received their medical degree (M.D.) from Universidad Nacional de Colombia in 1992. Ricardo then pursued further education, completing a postdoctoral fellowship in renal pharmacology at New York Medical College from 1996 to 1998. Following that, they furthered their expertise by completing another postdoctoral fellowship in endocrine hypertension at Harvard Medical School from 1998 to 2000. 

Sarah Cuddy, MBBCh BAO, MD, FACC, FASNC is a cardiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Amyloidosis Program. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed her medical school, residency and general cardiology training in Ireland. She then trained in multi-modality cardiovascular imaging at BWH. Inspired by the applications for imaging in cardiac amyloidosis, Dr. Cuddy joined the Amyloidosis Program as a fellow in 2018. She then joined the faculty in 2020. Her research  has focused on multi-modality imaging in cardiac amyloidosis. She has published several important papers on imaging characteristics of different stages of light chain (AL) amyloidosis, as well as echocardiographic findings in ATTR amyloidosis. She is also co-investigator and site PI for several therapeutic trials in ATTR amyloidosis. Her future goal is to address exercise intolerance in cardiac amyloidosis. She received career development awards from the American Heart Association and the NIH (K23 award) to evaluate exercise training in patients with cardiac amyloidosis.  

Dr. Spencer Carter completed medical school at the University of Washington followed by residency, cardiology fellowship, and advanced heart failure training at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. He is now an assistant professor in the section of heart failure and transplant at the University of Utah and is the cardiovascular director of the Utah Amyloidosis Program. Dr. Carter is passionate about education and implementation science, in particular empowering patients to better understand their disease and engage in treatment decisions. 

Dr. Vaishali Sanchorawala is the Professor of Medicine and Director of the Amyloidosis Center of Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. She has been one of the pioneers in the field of clinical research in AL amyloidosis.  Her work in the treatment of AL amyloidosis has been published in many peer-reviewed journals, which has resulted in the evolution of the standard of care for these patients. She is currently heading several clinical trials in the treatment of AL amyloidosis. She serves on the executive steering committee of the Amyloidosis Research Consortium, the board of the International Society of Amyloidosis as secretary, and as an associate editor of Amyloid, Journal of Protein Folding Disorders. She has helped to create and cultivate the next generation of physician-scientists in the area of clinical research in AL amyloidosis.