Isabel Gonçalves
Principal Investigator
Isabel Gonçalves is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University) and active cardiologist (senior consultant) in the Skåne University Hospital. Her research group uses and develops clinical and experimental imaging modalities to study atherosclerosis mechanisms, that underlie heart attacks and strokes, to improve their early diagnosis and discover new therapies to treat them.
Project in third call:
Multimodal imaging of human atherosclerotic plaques to prevent strokes and heart attacks
Principal Investigator
Isabel Gonçalves is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University) and active cardiologist (senior consultant) in the Skåne University Hospital. Her research group uses and develops clinical and experimental imaging modalities to study atherosclerosis mechanisms, that underlie heart attacks and strokes, to improve their early diagnosis and discover new therapies to treat them.
Project in third call:
Multimodal imaging of human atherosclerotic plaques to prevent strokes and heart attacks
Principal Investigator
Isabel Gonçalves is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University) and active cardiologist (senior consultant) in the Skåne University Hospital. Her research group uses and develops clinical and experimental imaging modalities to study atherosclerosis mechanisms, that underlie heart attacks and strokes, to improve their early diagnosis and discover new therapies to treat them.
Project in third call:
Multimodal imaging of human atherosclerotic plaques to prevent strokes and heart attacks
Short Biography
Isabel Gonçalves is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical Sciences Malmö, Lund University) and active cardiologist (senior consultant) in the Skåne University Hospital. Her research group uses and develops clinical and experimental imaging modalities to study atherosclerosis mechanisms, that underlie heart attacks and strokes, to improve their early diagnosis and discover new therapies to treat them.
AMBER postdoctoral fellowship subject (Third call)
Amyloid cardiomyopathy – the structural basis of transthyretin amyloidosis
We are looking for a new colleague with a PhD in Biology or Chemistry or Bioinformatics or Data Science or similar, with interest in image segmentation, quantification and development of strategies for analyses that can ultimately be applied in human disease.
Heart attacks and strokes are the largest causes of death and disability in the world. Atherosclerosis, the disease that underlies most of these cardiovascular events, consists on the formation of plaques (accumulations of lipids and inflammatory cells) in the arterial walls. When these plaques rupture, subsequent thrombosis occurs cause those events. The plaques that are prone to rupture seem to have a particular composition that is currently difficult to identify with clinical methods and that is still largely unknown due to an enormous complexity.
Human plaque components such as lipid cores, necrosis/apoptosis, intra plaque-hemorrhage, thin fibrous cap, inflammation, micro and macro calcifications, damaged collagen and/or elastic fibers are highly relevant for the risk of rupture. However, many of these components are difficult to study by conventional methods as histology. Therefore, nondestructive methods, with high-resolution as synchrotron-based technologies create unique opportunities to study these complex atherosclerotic plaques, which are the largest killers all over the world.
Human atherosclerotic plaque from our biobank (one of the largest and most detailed in the world with more than 1700 human samples) will be studied with clinically used modalities, in vivo (in the patients) and with state- of-the-art after being removed from the patients so that their composition is analyzed with unprecedented detail. We use standardized high-resolution ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), photon counting computed tomography, micro-CT and synchrotron-based technologies (as X-ray fluorescence, small and wide angle X-ray scattering) and advanced histological techniques. With a highly international and multidisciplinary team (of nurses, doctors, pathologists, cardiologists, experimental and clinical scientists, physicists, bioinformaticians), we are committed to characterize the mechanisms of atherosclerotic plaque rupture, mostly with non-destructive high-resolution techniques, allowing us to improve diagnosis and discover novel therapeutic targets against heart attacks and strokes.
Location: Lund, Sweden
Organisation: Lund University
Links
AMBER call in EURAXESS main call (starting point for application)
Isabel Gonçalves' profile in Lund University Research portal