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(NewMediaWire) - November 06, 2024 - DALLAS — Roderic I. Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., FAHA, the endowed Robert A. Welch Professor of Medicine, and former inaugural dean of the School of Engineering Medicine at Texas A&M University in Houston, will be recognized with the 2024 Research Achievement Award at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2024. The meeting, Nov. 16-18, 2024, in Chicago, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science. His award will be presented during the Presidential Session on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024.

Dr. Pettigrew was recently appointed vice chancellor for health and strategic initiatives for the statewide Texas A&M University System, and he continues to serve as the chief executive officer of engineering health for Texas A&M in Houston. Before becoming the inaugural dean of the School of Engineering Medicine and the vice chancellor in June 2024, he led the creation of the Texas A&M’s unique ENMED (Engineering Medicine) program and served as executive dean.

“It's my privilege to present Dr. Roderic Pettigrew with the 2024 Research Achievement Award,” said Keith Churchwell, M.D., FAHA, American Heart Association 2024-2025 volunteer president, associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and adjunct associate professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. “The type of research Roderic is conducting takes ideas that only seemed to exist in science fiction and makes them a reality. The potential for these new biomedical inventions to help people maintain good health longer and his role merging engineering and medicine will help lead to advancements that shape the future of medicine.”

Dr. Pettigrew’s career as a physician, scientist and engineer has a common theme of advancing medical technology as a means to solve problems, and throughout his career, he has a long track record of being at the forefront of programs combining medicine and engineering. From 1983-1985, he was a clinical research scientist at Picker International, the first manufacturer of MRI systems. At a time when obtaining MR images of non-moving organs such as the brain, spine and extremities was challenging, Dr. Pettigrew pursued what was more difficult — the development of MRI technologies to take images of the beating heart. He helped write and then installed the cardiovascular software for the first 10 Picker systems sited worldwide. He then joined Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology as professor of radiology, medicine (cardiology) and bioengineering, and he led the Emory Center for Magnetic Resonance Research with a focus on noninvasive cardiovascular imaging. In addition, he led a team of researchers to build the tools for quantitative, four-dimensional imaging of the heart and blood flow within the thoracic cavity — a visionary approach that took 20 years of continued development in computing power to make it into routine clinical practice.

In 2002, Dr. Pettigrew was recruited to be the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at the National Institutes of Health, the only NIH institute created at the nexus of the physical sciences, life sciences and engineering. As its founding director, he focused the NIBIB on emerging biomedical technologies and imaging innovations to catalyze discovery and technological advances to improve human health. For example, under his leadership, the NIBIB was an early co-funder of the Jackson Heart Study with a sub-study on cardiovascular imaging. At the NIH, his own research focused on imaging and predictive modeling of atherosclerotic disease. Recently, he co-edited the first comprehensive text titled Biomechanics of Atherosclerotic Plaque: From Model to Patient. He continues to push the envelope on vascular cell aging and furthering our understanding of endothelial cell mechanosensing and is currently pursuing non-invasive, high-resolution, vascular wall imaging.

Dr. Pettigrew subsequently joined the Texas A&M University and created the School of Engineering Medicine (ENMED), where students simultaneously earn medical degrees and master’s degrees in engineering in only four years. Attendees are purposefully trained to be medical innovators and are required to invent a solution to a health care challenge. His latest project in development is a highly advanced MRI — the Siemens Cima.X, which he proposed and inspired — to detect heart disease before people have a heart attack or stroke. The new generation MRI scanner can help evaluate the microarchitecture of the heart and further our fundamental understanding of heart muscle contraction, and evaluate the impact of cellular therapies after a heart attack. These types of advancements in diagnostics could potentially mean more years of healthy living for people at risk for heart disease, heart attack or stroke. Dr. Pettigrew’s research at Texas A&M is supported by the Governor’s University Research Initiative grant program, the NIH, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Welch Foundation.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by the Association for my career at the interface of the physical and life sciences and engineering with a personal focus on cardiovascular disease,” said Dr. Pettigrew. “The driving vision is one of breakthroughs to help us all maintain well-being for the entirety of our lives, and thus die healthy. Now we have a realistic expectation of accelerated transformations and medical disruptions through the convergence of traditionally distinct but synergistic disciplines that are, as Einstein put it, ’branches of the same tree.‘ Fusing these in our understanding, imaginative thinking and pursuit of impactful innovations promises more rapid creations that will make great differences. Imagine, for example, the elimination of stroke and the elimination of heart attacks. With focused intention, such aspirations could be achieved through this transdisciplinary approach.”

Dr. Pettigrew is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Inventors, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Science, India. He has been recognized with the Vannevar Bush Award, the highest recognition given by the Presidential National Science Board that oversees the NSF; gold medals from the Academy of Radiology Research and the Radiological Society of North America; and the Arthur M. Bueche Award from the National Academy of Engineering.  

Dr. Pettigrew earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Morehouse College, where he was a Merrill scholar; a doctorate in radiation physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a Harvard-MIT Whitaker Health Sciences & Technology Fellow; and a medical degree from the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami in its accelerated, two-year program. He began his internship/residency at Emory and completed his residency training at the University of California, San Diego.

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• For more news at AHA Scientific Sessions 2024, follow us on X @HeartNews, #AHA24

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public’s health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for a century. During 2024 - our Centennial year - we celebrate our rich 100-year history and accomplishments. As we forge ahead into our second century of bold discovery and impact, our vision is to advance health and hope for everyone, everywhere. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, X or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

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