February is American Heart Month. The University of South Carolina is home to many faculty members who are available to offer their expertise in cardio care and research. To coordinate an interview, contact the staff member listed with each expert entry.
Cardiovascular disease
Dr. Clinton Webb can talk about the triggers for stress-induced cardiovascular disease and the search for treatments. His research aims to provide new treatment targets for lowering blood pressure that originates in the nervous system due to stress. High blood pressure and the vascular damage it does that leads to cardiovascular disease is an enormous emotional and financial burden on patients with chronically elevated blood pressure. Other research has focused on the principal role of inflammation and the blood vessel aspects of erectile and clitoral dysfunction, which are themselves predictors of cardiovascular disease. He is director of both the School of Medicine Columbia’s Cardiovascular Translational Research Center and Institute for Cardiovascular Research.
News contact: Emily Miles, emily.miles@uscmed.sc.edu, 803-727-0471.
Colin Evans studies how blood vessels respond when blocked or injured and then examines if these responses can be leveraged to treat inflammatory vascular diseases. At the Evans Laboratory at USC’s School of Medicine Columbia, the vascular responses to how blood clots in an artery or vein (known as thrombosis) are viewed for ways to improving treatments for inflammatory vascular diseases, including acute respiratory distress syndrome. Using clinically relevant disease models and targeted gene editing and drug delivery techniques, the Evans Laboratory focuses on two discrete but related disease areas of thrombus formation and resolution as well as inflammatory lung injury and repair.
News contact: Gregory Hardy, ghardy@sc.edu, 352-362-7052.
Camilla Ferreira Wenceslau is an associate professor at the Cardiovascular Translational Research Center, CBA, at the School of Medicine Columbia who studies how blood vessels change and become damaged in high blood pressure and Alzheimer’s disease. Her team uses advanced techniques to understand how different blood vessel cells function and respond to stress. They focus on a harmful cell transformation (endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, or EndMT) that contributes to disease onset and progression. Their goal is to reverse this damage by restoring normal cell behavior and improving blood vessel function. By combining genetic analysis and reprogramming strategies, they aim to develop new treatments to repair blood vessels and improve health in people with these conditions.
News contact: Gregory Hardy, ghardy@sc.edu, 352-362-7052.
Heart defect education
Stephanie Schaller, an assistant professor of professional nursing practice, specializes in innovative teaching methods for congenital heart defect education. Her research focuses on using 3D printing technology to enhance nursing students’ understanding of congenital heart defects, improving knowledge retention and clinical confidence. Schaller developed interactive, tactile learning models that simulate multiple heart defects. Her work demonstrates that hands-on engagement with 3D-printed heart models significantly enhances student comprehension and patient care readiness. Her contributions advance nursing education by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world application in pediatric cardiology.
News contact: Nicole Meares, nmeares@sc.edu, 803-777-9147.
Heart surgery
Dr. Jesse Jorgensen is board-certified in interventional cardiology and cardiovascular disease. He has expertise in cardiovascular interventions that open blockages of heart arteries and peripheral arteries of the legs and kidneys. He has a special interest in structural heart interventions, including minimally invasive/catheter-based closure of congenital heart defects such as atrial septal defect (ASD) and patent foramen ovale (PFO), as well as Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) and transcatheter repair of the mitral valve with MitraClip. These minimally invasive procedures lead to faster recovery than traditional open-heart surgery and shorter hospital stays, with most patients going home same day or the following morning.
News contact: Gregory Hardy, ghardy@sc.edu, 352-362-7052.
New treatments for heart failure
Dr. Frank Spinale researches new treatment options that can be turned into practice for the major causes of heart failure, which is the leading cause of death and disability in South Carolina. He works to advance our understanding and potential treatment in the area of cardiovascular remodeling, which addresses changes to the heart after injury. He helped to spearhead a new generation of heart failure medications with clinical development work for Entresto. Dr. Spinale leads a research team that studies a type of heart failure that is on the rise where the heart pumps normally but is too stiff to fill properly and is called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.
News contact: Emily Miles, emily.miles@uscmed.sc.edu, 803-727-0471.
Rural heart health
Gayenell Magwood is a nurse scientist who works and advocates extensively with communities and health systems of South Carolina’s medically underserved areas. Magwood’s team has been funded as a center to address cardiovascular stroke disparities. Her work addresses historically marginalized groups and rural disparities through community-engaged health research so that everyone has opportunity to attain their highest level of health and well-being. She collaborates with researchers and clinicians at regional, national and international levels, such as leadership roles on the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Her work for the American Heart Association includes mentoring other cardiovascular and stroke researchers.
News contact: Nicole Meares, nmeares@sc.edu, 803-777-9147.
Women’s heart health
Jewel Scott is a nurse scientist dedicated to understanding how cardiovascular health develops during young adulthood and finding ways to support lifelong health. As a College of Nursing assistant professor, she focuses on ways stress and adversity can affect heart health and identifying factors that promote well-being, especially in adolescent and young adult women of color. “Risk factors such as pregnancy complications, chronic stress, and depressive symptoms are important considerations to optimize the heart health of young Black women,” Scott says. Her research is informed by her clinical practice experience in community health centers in urban and rural environments.
News contact: Nicole Meares, nmeares@sc.edu, 803-777-9147.
Why it matters
According to the American Heart Association:
- Nearly 2,500 people in the U.S. die from cardiovascular disease every day.
- The overall number of cardiovascular disease-related deaths in the U.S. was 941,652 in 2022, the most recent year for which final data is available. That’s an increase of more than 10,000 from the 931,578 deaths in 2021.
- Nearly 47 percent of U.S. adults have high blood pressure.
- More than 72 percent of U.S. adults have unhealthy weight, with nearly 42 percent having obesity.
- More than half of U.S. adults (57 percent) have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
Banner photo: A nursing student practices with a 3D-modeled heart.