ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2020
The Young Physician-Scientist Awards (YPSA) recognize physician-scientists who are early in their first faculty appointment and have made notable achievements in their research.
About the awardee
Amanda Marma Perak, MD, MS, received her BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago and her MD and MS in Clinical Investigation from the Northwestern University (NU) Feinberg School of Medicine. She trained in pediatrics and pediatric cardiology at Boston Children’s Hospital of Harvard University before returning to NU in 2015 for training in advanced cardiac imaging and cardiovascular epidemiology and prevention. Dr. Perak is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Cardiology and Preventive Medicine at NU and a pediatric cardiologist at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She is committed to preventing atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases and heart failure by promoting optimal cardiovascular health from the beginning of life. Her clinical and teaching interests are in pediatric preventive cardiology and noninvasive cardiac imaging. Her research centers on defining and intervening at the origins of cardiovascular and metabolic function. Dr. Perak’s specific areas of focus include maternal-fetal cardiometabolic health, molecular mechanisms of cardiometabolic health development (e.g., microbiomics, metabolomics), and behavioral interventions to improve cardiometabolic health in youth. Her research is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (K23), the American Heart Association (SFRN), the Dixon/NUCATS Translational Research Initiative, the Woman’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the NU Department of Pediatrics.