William Sessa honored by American Heart Association
William Sessa, the Alfred Gilman Professor of Pharmacology and professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, is an inaugural recipient of the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Merit Award.
The Merit Award supports the work of “scientists who propose novel approaches to major research challenges in cardiovascular disease and stroke that have the potential to produce an unusually high impact” and “to move a field of science forward with creative approaches.” As one of the first two recipients of this prestigious honor, Sessa will receive $1 million in funding over five years.
The AHA award recognizes Sessa’s work to elucidate the early triggers of coronary artery disease. He will also serve as an ambassador to advance the nonprofit’s mission to build healthier lives free of cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Sessa is also vice chair of the Pharmacology Section and director of the Vascular Biology & Therapeutics Program at Yale School of Medicine. His lab uses an interdisciplinary approach spanning from functional genomics to disease modeling in vivo focusing on the etiologic factors or genes that regulate the transition of a healthy “normal” endothelium to a dysfunctional endothelium promoting disease.
The American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke.
