ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2023

Derek Mark Klarin, MD uses genomic approaches to better understand the etiology of atherosclerosis, vascular disease, and their associated risk factors including lipids and thrombosis. In collaboration with other investigators, his research interests focus on elucidating the genetic basis of complex vascular disease traits. His recent work has expanded the understanding of genetics of lipids as well as arterial and venous disease through large-scale genetic analysis. By combining methods in computational biology, statistics, and epidemiology, he has used the discovered risk genes/mutations to identify those at greatest risk for lower extremity ischemia, thrombosis, and limb amputation.

As a vascular surgeon, Dr. Klarin has created a unique niche in his field and the cardiovascular field overall through an emphasis on genomic and precision medicine techniques for otherwise understudied vascular diseases. Moving forward, he plans to focus specifically on understanding the driving factors that cause vascular disease in one vascular bed (coronary, cerebral, peripheral, or venous) over another, as well as the underlying genetic factors that contribute to aneurysm disease. To achieve this, he will continue to focus on (1) variant/gene discovery; (2) phenotyping strategies utilizing large-scale electronic health record (EHR) data to increase discovery power for understudied cardiovascular syndromes; and (3) defining the mechanisms by which newly identified mutations impact disease. His long-term goals entail leveraging these insights clinically for preventative and therapeutic intervention.