PhD student selected for American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship

Josie Silvaroli, a second-year PhD student in Dr. Navjot Pabla’s lab at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, was selected for the American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship, which will fund her research on how acute kidney injury (AKI) occurs on a cellular level and support drug development to solve it.

“The AHA Predoctoral Fellowship will robustly benefit my career through enhancing my research productivity, providing advanced training and developing a new research direction in the field of AKI,” Silvaroli said in her personal statement letter for the AHA fellowship.

The goal of the AHA Predoctoral Fellowship is to “enhance the integrated research and clinical training of promising students who are matriculated in pre-doctoral or clinical health professional degree training programs and who intend to pursue careers as scientists, physician-scientists or other clinician-scientists, or related careers aimed at improving global cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and brain health.”

Because the cardiovascular system is linked to the function of the kidneys, supporting the health and function of the kidneys is vital in cardiovascular health; many times, if there is kidney injury, there can be heart dysfunction as a result.

For each year during Silvaroli’s award period, January 2022 through January 2024, she will receive a research stipend of over $25,000, $2,000 in project support for travel and equipment, and $4,200 in health insurance.

Silvaroli’s love of science, especially characterizing biochemical mechanisms, started when she was a full-time research assistant completing undergraduate coursework as a part-time chemistry student at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). There, she mentored many high school and undergraduate students and authored several research articles that were published in various scientific journals, such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

During her time as an undergraduate research assistant, she mainly focused on the chemical compound retinoid but completed a project that characterized the chemical mechanisms that determined why people cry while cutting onions. This project led to her second first-author paper, which was widely recognized by the public and landed her an interview for a piece by the New York Times discussing this work.

Upon completing her PhD, Silvaroli wants to pursue a tenure-track academic faculty research position to develop her own research while mentoring other future scientists.

“I am thrilled to receive this prestigious fellowship," Silvaroli said. "It allows me to devote more time and resources to my research as well as help prepare me for a future career in academia. I am thankful for the mentoring and support I have at Ohio State.”