Tomas Vaisar, PhD
Title:
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition
Email Address:
Background:
Tomas Vaisar received his PhD at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic in 1992. In 2002 he joined the laboratory of Dr. Jay W. Heinecke at the University of Washington, Seattle and is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence at the University of Washington.
Focus:
Dr. Vaisar's research focuses on examining the role of inflammation in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease. Specifically, his research looks at the role of macrophages and macrophage derived proteases (with emphasis on matrix metalloproteinases) in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and diabetes and obesity accelerated atherosclerosis. Further, Dr. Vaisar is interested in the role of inflammation in modulation macrophage function, proteolytic activity and identification of physiological substrates of MMPs. To address these questions his lab uses state of the art proteomic techniques and has developed an unbiased proteomics approach for identification of proteolytic substrates.
Representative Publications:
Vaisar T. Proteomic analysis of lipid-protein complexes. J Lipid Res. 2009 Feb 19. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19229074.
Vaisar T, Kassim SY, Gomez IG, Green PS, Hargarten SA, Gough PJ, Parks WC, Wilson CL, Raines EW, Heinecke JW. MMP-9 sheds the beta 2 integrin subunit (CD18) from macrophages. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2009 Jan 8. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19116209.
Green PS, Vaisar T, Pennathur S, Kulstad JJ, Moore AB, Marcovina S, Brunzell
J, Knopp RH, Zhao XQ, Heinecke JW. Combined statin and niacin therapy remodels the high-density lipoprotein proteome. Circulation. 2008 Sep 16;118(12):1259-67. PMID: 18765395.
Fu X, Gharib SA, Green PS, Aitken ML, Frazer DA, Park DR, Vaisar T, Heinecke
JW. Spectral index for assessment of differential protein expression in shotgunproteomics. J Proteome Res. 2008 Mar;7(3):845-54. PMID: 18198819.
Vaisar T, Pennathur S, Green PS, Gharib SA, Hoofnagle AN, Cheung MC, Byun J, Vuletic S, Kassim S, Singh P, Chea H, Knopp RH, Brunzell J, Geary R, Chait A, Zhao XQ, Elkon K, Marcovina S, Ridker P, Oram JF, Heinecke JW. Shotgun proteomics implicates protease inhibition and complement activation in the antiinflammatory properties of HDL. J Clin Invest. 2007 Mar;117(3):746-56. PMID: 17332893.
Current Collaborations:
Within the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence and its Affiliated Members
Jay Heinecke, MD
John Albers, PhD
Marian Cheung, PhD
Alan Chait, MD
William Parks, PhD
Outside the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence
Elaine Raines, University of Washington
Kevin O’Brien, MD, University of Washington
Jonathan Purnell, MD, Oregon Health & Science University
Frank Turecek, PhD, University of Washington
Clem Furlong, PhD, University of Washington
Gary Lewis, FRCPC, MD, University of Toronto
Godfrey Getz, MD, University of Chicago
Frederick C. de Beer, MD, University of Kentucky
Yves Charnay, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Olivier Meihlac, PhD, INSERM, Paris, France
John Kane, MD, PhD, UCSF
Bryan Prazen, PhD, Insilicos Inc.
Lab Members:
Ilona Babenko, MS
Brian Snyder, BS, BA