Explore recent accomplishments from our faculty and trainees, including awards, publications, presentations and other notable achievements. These contributions reflect the collaboration, innovation and impact that define our department.
Recent Highlights
Matthew Walker, PhD, recipient of the American Heart Association Bridge Career Development Award, was invited to speak at the AHA Basic Cardiovascular Science Summer Conference in July. He presented “Targeting mitochondria genome for heart failure therapy.”
Rebecca C. Dale, DO and Wenyu Pan, MD co-chair the 16th John D. Loeser Pain Conference, hosted by the UW School of Medicine on October 30. The in-person, full day event also features Isuta Nishio, MD, PhD, Tasha Parman, DPT, and Rosanne Sheinberg, MD, ABoIM. Learn more about the conference.
Zain Wedemeyer, a research engineer of Gavia Labs at UW Medical Center – Montlake, is a Spring 2026 recipient of the University of Washington’s CoMotion Innovation Gap Fund. The funding program supports researchers working on projects with commercial potential. His project, ThumbSense, was submitted in collaboration with a team that included Kelly Michaelsen, MD, PhD; Srdjan Jelacic, MD, FASE; and Andrew Bowdle, MD, PhD, FASE.
Jake Sunshine, MD, recipient of the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association 2026 Luminary Award, will present at Redefining Healthcare in the Age of AI, a Nature Conference, held September 8-10 in Paris, France. Learn more about Dr. Sunshine’s work.
Deepak Sharma, MBBS, MD, DM, presented “Perioperative Monitoring of Cerebral Perfusion: Neuroanesthesia, Neurocritical Care and Beyond,” during the World Brain Health Day webinar co-hosted by the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) and the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology & Critical Care (SNACC) on July 22.
Dan Raftery, PhD, was awarded a NIH S10 grant to support the purchase of an Advanced Multiplexed UPLC-MS/Mass Spectrometry System for Target Metabolomics.
Shabnam Salimi, MD, MSc, was selected as the recipient of our department’s Spring 2026 Pilot Grant Award for her project, “Detection of Early-stage Chronic Kidney Disease Using Bayesian-based Metabolomic Clocks.”
Sara Nikravan, MD, FASE, FCCM, presented “POCUS Revolution” at Grand Rounds for the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University in St. Louis in July. She also delivered the Kerber-Kirkpatrick Ethics/Humanitarian Lecture at the 2026 American Society of Echocardiography Scientific Sessions. Her topic, “POCUS at the Heart of Global Health,” reflected on the ways point-of-care ultrasound can empower healthcare providers, strengthen systems, and foster meaningful global partnerships.
Dustin Long, MD, was awarded an NIH R35 for his project, “Targeting the preoperative microbiome for the prevention of surgical site infection and prophylactic antibiotic resistance.”
Tonya Palermo, PhD, joined the North American Pain School, held in Quebec, Canada at the end of June, as a guest speaker. She was also inducted as a 2026 USASP Fellow at the United States Association for the Study of Pain 2026 Annual Meeting. The highest class of membership within the USASP, the designation recognizes members who have demonstrated excellence in advancing the understanding of pain through sustained scholarship leadership and service.
Itay Bentov, MD, PhD, is featured in “Episode 190: Perioperative Care for Older Adults,” part of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Central Line podcast series. He also co-authored the featured opinion piece in the June issue of the ASA Monitor, “The Aging Brain – Our New Frontier in Perioperative Excellence.”
Department Chair G. Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, FSCAI, co-led multiple live, premiere classes in mitral TEER imaging at the Congenital & Structural Interventions (CSI) Congress, held in Frankfurt, Germany this June. CSI is dedicated to promoting development in the field of structural, valvular and congenital heart interventions worldwide. Dr. Mackensen is the recipient of the American Society of Echocardiography 2026 Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Echocardiography Award. Read the full announcement.
NIH awarded an R01 to Li Li, MD, PhD, for his project “Elucidating locus coeruleus homeostatic mechanisms in opioid-induced sleep disturbances.”
Wang Wang, MD, PhD, presented “Emerging Roles of Redox and Mitochondrial Dynamics in Metabolic Heart Disease,” at UW’s 2026 Annual Diabetes and Metabolism Symposium on May 7th.
Rong Tian, MD, PhD, professor and director of the Mitochondria and Metabolism Center, was the Emil Bozler Distinguished Lecturer at Ohio State University’s 20th Annual Physiology and Cell Biology Research Day. Dr. Tian’s presentation, “Mitochondria in Cardiac Physiology and Disease,” highlighted research at the intersection of cellular energetics and cardiovascular health.
In the news
Your sleep supplement might also help with chronic pain // Daron Vandeleur, MD — Health.com
Nerve tissue offers insights into chronic neck pain // Michele Curatolo, MD, PhD — UW Medicine Newsroom
Program improves care for children with brain injury // Monica S. Vavilala MD — UW Medicine Newsroom
Chronic pain is common, yet treatments often fall short // Yian Chen, MD — UW Medicine Newsroom
Select journal publications
Matthew Walker, PhD and Rong Tian, MD, PhD, wrote the editorial “Cracking the Code of Cardiac ATP-Dependent Citrate Lyase With Wet and Dry Tools,” which appeared in Circulation on July 20.
Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, FCSAI, is co-author of “Guidelines for the Intraprocedural Imaging for Mitral Valve Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (M-TEER): Recommendations from the American Society of Echocardiography,” published in Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (June 2026)
Monica Vavilala, MD is first author of “Results of the Pediatric Guideline Adherence and Outcomes (PEGASUS) Program Versus Usual Care Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury,” published in Critical Care Medicine (June 2026). Julia Velonjara is a contributor.
Garret Stuber, PhD, is senior author of “Prefrontal to ventral tegmental area dynamics drive contingency degradation,” published in Nature (May 2026). Co-authors include Madelyn M. Hjort, PhD (first author, former member of the Stuber Lab), Michael Bruchas, PhD, and Adam Gordon-Fennell, PhD.
Tonya Palermo, PhD, is senior author of “Patient global impression of change in pediatric chronic pain clinical trials: A review and secondary analysis of randomized controlled trial data,” in Journal of Pain (May 2026). Rui Li, PhD, is a co-author.
Michael Bruchas, PhD, is senior author of “Identification of a stress-sensitive endogenous opioid-containing neuronal population in the paranigral ventral tegmental,” published in Neuropsychopharmacology (April 2026). Co-authors include Bruchas Lab alumnus David Marcus, PhD.
Ian Jones, MD, is first author of “Perioperative Dexamethasone in Periprosthetic Joint Infection Surgery: Diabetes-Stratified Results From a Propensity Score-Matched Retrospective Cohort Study.” Anesthesia & Analgesia (April 2026)
Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, FCSAI, is first author of “Adapting Interventional Echocardiography to New Techniques: Echocardiographic Guidance for Transcatheter Myotomy Using Septal Scoring Along the Midline Endocardium” in the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography” (March 2026). Co-authors include Ester Canovas-Roderiguez, MD, Srdjan Jelacic, MD, and Richard Sheu, MD.
Kushang V. Patel, PhD, MPH, is senior author of “Integrated Nurse Care Management to Reduce Pain Interference for Primary Care Patients in Rural Communities: Results from a Pilot Study.” Pain Medicine (February 2026)
Karen Domino, MD, MPH, is senior author of the “2026 American Society of Anesthesiologists Practice Guideline on Perioperative Pain Management Using Local and Regional Analgesia for Cardiothoracic Surgeries, Mastectomy, and Abdominal Surgeries.” Anesthesiology (January 2026)