2024 Recipient
Congratulations are in order to
Dr. Joshua Geiger
Dr. Joshua Geiger is a vascular surgery integrated resident at the University of Rochester.
​Dr. Geiger began the training program on June 26, 2021 and is currently a resident at the PGY-2 level while he completes one year of research within the Vascular Surgery Department.
His mentor team includes Dr. Doran Mix, assistant professor of vascular surgery, and Dr. Minsoo Kim, professor of microbiology and immunology, and of pharmacology and physiology.
He has had multiple papers published in the medical field as well as presented at many medical seminars and conferences.
The aim of his project is to study the role of microbiomes in aneurysmal degeneration.
Update from Dr. Josh Geiger
We have finished collecting all of the samples. We have performed sequencing of bacteria within the mouth of many patient and identify a number of bacterial species that are more common in the mouth in people with aneurysms.
In addition, we have extracted extracellular vesicles, those small packages of information released by all cells. We performed sequencing of the RNA within these vesicles and have many exciting discoveries. we are currently working on the analysis of this data but generally, we have found that patients with aneurysms have a significantly reduced response to bacteria within the mouth. This is not seen throughout the body in the blood, which is a highly unexpected result. We believe the different bacteria in the mouth, and possibly in the gut may be communicating with our immune system and changing how it responds. We believe this change is contributing to vascular disease, including aneurysms, but likely also heart disease.
I believe the results we have already will be enough to support applications to large grants to further understand how the interaction between bacteria and the human immune system drive cardiovascular disease.
So far, I believe we’ve been incredibly successful, and I am deeply appreciative of the support and confidence from the heart fun!
Josh