2026 Amyloidosis Forum Annual Meeting

A. Alex Hofling is the Director of the FDA’s Office of Specialty Medicine (OSM) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). OSM includes the Division of Imaging and Radiation Medicine (DIRM), of which he is the acting Director. In addition to his current role in the development and regulation of medical imaging and radiation medicine products, he has experience in the clinical practice of radiology and translational research. He completed an MD/PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis with thesis work in molecular biology.

Following residency at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and board certification in diagnostic radiology, he completed fellowship training in magnetic resonance imaging at the University of San Diego, California. He joined the FDA in 2016.

Aliza Thompson is Director of the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology, Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Division of
Cardiology and Nephrology regulates and reviews Investigational New Drug applications
and marketing applications for drug and biologic products for the treatment of
cardiovascular and kidney diseases. Dr. Thompson joined the FDA in 2007. Prior to her
current position, Dr. Thompson served as Deputy Director of the Division. Dr. Thompson
received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins Medical School and completed her
Internal Medicine and Nephrology training at Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian
Hospital. She holds a Master of Science in Biostatistics/Patient Oriented Research Track
from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Andrea Baines, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Physician in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies II (DHMII) in the Office of Oncologic Diseases (OOD) within the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University and subsequently served as a Research Fellow in the Laboratory of Leukocyte Biology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Baines earned her M.D. and Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Bayview and her fellowship in adult Hematology at Johns Hopkins.
Since joining the FDA in 2017, Dr. Baines has reviewed investigational new drug and marketing applications for hematologic malignancies, with a focus on the development of new therapies for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and light chain (AL) amyloidosis. She has also been engaged in advancing the use of novel oncology endpoints, including minimal residual disease (MRD) in MM clinical trials.

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.

Charu Gandotra, MD, MS, FACC, FASE currently serves as the Deputy Division Director for the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She completed her MBBS from Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, India, internal medicine residency and general cardiology fellowship at Howard University Hospital, Washington DC. She completed Masters in Clinical and Translational Research at Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Washington DC. She joined FDA in 2018 and has been involved in review of drugs to treat various cardiovascular disorders such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral vascular disease, coronary artery disease, pericarditis, etc. Her interests include clinical trial design and endpoints.

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 

Dan Krainak, Ph.D., is the Assistant Director for the Magnetic Resonance and Nuclear
Medicine devices team in Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) at FDA. Dan
joined the FDA in 2011 and participates in the review of radiological devices, imaging
biomarkers, and radiological imaging in therapeutic medical product clinical trials. These
activities include the review of premarket submissions, post market activities, surveillance
activities, guidance writing, and standards development primarily related to radiological
devices. He is a former co-chair of the Biomarker Working Group at FDA and member of the
NIH-FDA Biomarker Working Group that maintains the BEST (Biomarkers, EndpointS, and
other Tools) Resource. Dan received his M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from
Northwestern University and Bachelor in Biomedical Engineering from the Catholic
University of America, Washington, D.C.

Donald Dietz, MD, MS, is Medical Director for Global Clinical Development at BridgeBio
Cardiovascular. He is a board-certified internist and infectious disease physician with over
a decade of experience in clinical research, patient care, and academic medicine, now
focused on bringing novel therapeutics to improve the lives of patients with ATTR
amyloidosis.

Efstathios Kastritis, MD is Professor of Clinical Therapeutics/Internal and Medicine and Medical Oncology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUOA), School of Medicine. He graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens School of Medicine and completed residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Medical Oncology at the Department of Clinical Therapeutics. He received his Doctorate from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and was a post-doctoral Fellow at the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His research focus includes clinical and translational research in Amyloidosis and plasma cell dyscrasias, especially multiple myeloma, AL and ATTR amyloidosis, Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia and monoclonal gammopathies of renal and clinical significance. He is the Scientific Director of the Amyloidosis Referral Center in Athens, Greece, has led phase 2 and phase 3 studies in AL amyloidosis and ATTR amyloidosis as local or global PI. He has more than 560 published papers in peer reviewed journals.

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. 

Elisabet Manasanch is a senior medical director and the lead of the AL amyloidosis
program at Regeneron. Prior to this, she was a medical director at GSK within the
belantamab mafodotin program, leading a phase 3 registrational study and advancing new
early phase molecules. In academia, she was a tenured Associate Professor at the
Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center. She graduated with an M.D. degree from the University of Barcelona in 2005 and
received an M.H.Sc. in Clinical Research from Duke University in 2014. She pursued
internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of Massachusetts and
National Institutes of Health-National Cancer Institute (NCI), respectively and is board-
certified in both specialties. During her fellowship training at the NCI, she focused on the
research and treatment of plasma cell dyscrasias. Prior to her recruitment to industry, she
led the Myeloma Precursor Disease Program (as PI of major peer-reviewed grants and more
than 10 investigator-initiated studies) , co-led the MD Anderson Myeloma Moon Shot effort
and was director of the Myeloma Tissue Bank. She was a member of the International
Myeloma Society and the International Myeloma Working Group. She has published more
than 100 articles in the field of plasma cell dyscrasias.

Franca Angeli, MD, PhD, is Global Product Leader for Amyloidosis at AstraZeneca, where
she provides strategic leadership across clinical development, regulatory affairs, medical,
commercial, market access, and operational functions. A physician-scientist with more
than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology.

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.

Dr. Heather J. Landau, MD, is an Associate Attending Physician on the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant, Cellular Therapy, and Multiple Myeloma services at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center. She is the Director of the Amyloidosis Program, where she leads a multidisciplinary group focused on clinical and translational research to improve outcomes for patients with AL amyloidosis. Dr. Landau has been Principal Investigator on innovative studies for patients with multiple myeloma, including a Pilot trial of Homebound Transplantation, the first of its kind in an urban environment and has investigated pharmacokinetically dosed melphalan for pre-transplant conditioning to minimize toxicity and improve efficacy. Dr. Landau is leading NEXICART-2, the first BCMA-targeted CAR-T trial for relapsed/refractory AL amyloidosis. Her academic work spans hematopoietic cell transplant optimization, novel therapy approaches for multiple myeloma and light chain amyloidosis, and the use of T cell redirecting therapies for AL amyloidosis. Dr. Landau was a Co-chair of the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) Plasma Cell Disorder Working Group, a Steering Committee member for a high-priority initiative of the International Society of Cardio-Oncology titled Building Effective Amyloidosis Care Networks (BEACON) and has recently published Management recommendations for kidney transplantation in patients with plasma cell dyscrasia. In addition to her research, she teaches and mentors across all training levels and is the Fellowship Director for a Multidisciplinary Amyloidosis Fellowship that is now offered at MSK.

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.

Jennifer brings over a decade of statistical expertise at the FDA where she has served as a
reviewer and Team Leader supporting clinical areas of Metabolism and Endocrinology, and
Cardiology and Nephrology. She holds a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her doctoral work explored the application of machine
learning algorithms to genomic data. Her current interests include applying principled
statistical thinking and regulatory decision making in outcomes trials as well as Bayesian
methods

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.

Dr. Jie (Jenni) Li is Associate Director for RWE at the Office of Surveillance and
Epidemiology (OSE) in CDER FDA. She leads office activities relating to RWE, overseeing
scientific input into guidance and policy development. An expert in RWE and
pharmacoepidemiology, Dr. Li. led major pre- and post-market epidemiological reviews in
effectiveness and safety, resulting in impactful approvals of novel drugs and labeling
chang. She served in leadership teams of RWE at FDA and participated in developing the
first-generation series of RWE guidances, FDA-sponsored research demonstration
projects, and FDA public reporting on RWE use.

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. 

Liron Walsh is vice president and head of Clinical Development for Intellia’s programs. He
joined Intellia in 2021 and has more than 15 years of clinical development experience in the
pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and has held multiple leadership roles in the
advancement of rare disease programs through various stages of development. Liron
received his MD from the University of Toronto and completed his Nephrology fellowship at
Mount Sinai in NY.

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.

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. 

Nitasha Sarswat, MD, is a board certified cardiologist that specializes in advanced heart
failure and heart transplantation. Dr. Sarswat has a particular expertise in cardiac
amyloidosis, pulmonary hypertension and cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Along with her clinical pursuits, Dr. Sarswat also researches a variety of cardiology topics,
investigating ways to improve the treatment and management of heart failure. She has
been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Echocardiography, American
Journal of Medicine and Hospital Practice.

Patrick Jay MD PhD joined Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in 2019 and is currently executive
director in Clinical Research. He leads the nucresiran clinical development program in
ATTR amyloidosis

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.

Dr. Preston Dunnmon received his medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine, following which he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He was the recipient of an American Heart Association / Bugher Foundation Molecular Cardiology Fellowship, during which his research focus was G-protein mediated transmembrane signal transduction in the heart, and he reviewed manuscripts regarding G-proteins for Circulation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. After serving in the US Air Force as Division Chief of Cardiology at Andrews Air Force Base Medical Center and cardiac catheterization laboratory staff at both Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda National Naval Medical Center, Preston transitioned to private industry where he was Section Head of late phase clinical development for cardiovascular, GI, and GU development programs globally at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals. In 2010, Preston returned to government service, most recently as clinical team leader and cross-disciplinary team leader for the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology at the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. After departing FDA in 2021, Preston transitioned to Janssen Research and Development where he is currently Vice President, Data Science, Cardiovascular/Metabolism & Pulmonary Hypertension. He holds current board certifications in both Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases.

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.

Richard Cheng, MD, MSc, is Professor of Medicine and Section Chief for Heart Failure,
Transplant, MCS, and Cardio-Oncology at the University of Washington, and Co-Director of
the UW/Fred Hutch Amyloidosis Program. He has contributed to ACC guidance documents
on cardiac amyloidosis, serves as the national lead for the BEACON initiative to increase
amyloid awareness, and has been site principal investigator for clinical trials spanning the
ATTR stabilizer, silencer, and depleter pipeline

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. 

Tzu-Yun McDowell is a Senior Clinical Analyst in the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology,
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
She has been with the Division since 2013, where she leads data-driven clinical reviews of
drug and biologic applications for cardiovascular and renal products. Dr. McDowell holds a
Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and is
dedicated to advancing cardiovascular science and promoting the development of safe
and effective treatments for patients with cardiovascular and renal disease.

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.

Dr. Yvonne Efebera is a hematologist who specializes in B-cell lymphoid malignancies,
including multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, Waldenstrom’s disease, and stem cell and bone
marrow transplant. She is an international leader focusing her clinical and research
expertise in blood and marrow transplantation, multiple myeloma, and Plasma cell
dyscrasia.

Dr. Efebera has been named “TOP Doctors”, “Regional Top Doctors”, “MOST Honored
Doctor”, “Exceptional Women in Medicine” since 2016 by Castle Connolly and has been
rated in the top ten percent of physicians in the nation for patient satisfaction since 2014.
She is the director of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy for OhioHealth