Tomas Vaisar, PhD
Title:
Research Associate 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 lipoproteins in the development of cardiovascular disease.
Current projects focus on:
• HDL as a carrier of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. This project focuses on development and application of quantitative proteomic methods to discovery of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. Unlike whole plasma, HDL is a simple proteome of up to 100 proteins which is in the causal pathway of cardiovascular disease. Quantitative assessment of HDL proteome can therefore provide biomarkers for disease diagnosis as well as markers of therapeutic intervention efficacy.
• Role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease with particular focus on the role of HDL and its interactions with cells in the artherosclerotic lesions (macrophages, endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells). Inflammation is one of the hallmarks of atherosclerosis and is associated with major changes in the HDL protein composition, activation of cells in the arterial wall, and increased production of proteases in the atherosclerotic lesions. We are addressing questions of how the changes in HDL composition affect its anti-atherogenic properties and what is the role of proteolysis in the progression of atherosclerosis.
To address these questions his lab is using state of the art proteomic techniques and has developed targeted quantitative methods for HDL proteome analysis and an unbiased proteomics approach for identification of physiological proteolytic substrates.
Representative Publications:
Cheung MC, Vaisar T, Han X, Heinecke JW, Albers JJ. Phospholipid transfer protein in human plasma associates with proteins linked to immunity and inflammation. Biochemistry. 49:7314-7322, 2010. PMCID: PMC2930196.
Vaisar T, Mayer P, Nilsson E, Zhao XQ, Knopp R, Prazen BJ. HDL in humans with cardiovascular disease exhibits a proteomic signature. Clin Chim Acta. 411:972-979, 2010. PMCID: PMC2862883.
Vaisar T. Thematic review series: proteomics. Proteomic analysis of lipid-protein complexes. J Lipid Res. 50:781-786, 2009. PMCID: PMC2666164.
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. 8:1044-1060, 2009. PMCID: PMC2689762.
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. 118:1259-1267, 2008. 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 shotgun proteomics. J Proteome Res. 7:845-854, 2008. 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 anti-inflammatory properties of HDL. J Clin Invest. 117:746-756, 2007. 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
Olivier Meihlac, PhD, INSERM, Paris, France
John Kane, MD, PhD, UCSF
Bryan Prazen, PhD, Insilicos Inc.
Lab Members:
Ilona Babenko, MS