Investigators | LSS-ATTR

Meet Our Team

Our team is comprised of experienced clinical researchers, amyloid experts, cardiologists, heart failure providers, neurosurgeons, orthopedists, pathologist, imagers, and research coordinators who work together to achieve our mission. The mission is to identify patients with cardiac amyloidosis as early as possible at a time before significant cardiac dysfunction has occurred. This effort is key to leveraging specific therapies for cardiac amyloidosis because they work by preventing new amyloid deposits but don't remove existing amyloid. Each member of our team brings unique skills and insights to our research, and we are all dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by

transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis.

Meet the Principal Investigators

Dr. Mathew S Maurer

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Mathew S. Maurer, MD - Dr. Maurer is a general internist and geriatric cardiologist with advanced training in heart failure and cardiac transplantation. He is the Arnold and Arlene Goldstein Professor of Cardiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, where directs the Clinical Cardiovascular Research Laboratory for the Elderly (CCRLE). Dr. Maurer is a member of the Advanced Cardiac Care Center at NewYork Presbyterian Hospital – Columbia Campus. He is the Director of the Cardiac Amyloidosis Program.

Dr. Frederick Ruberg

Boston Medical Center

Dr. Ruberg’s clinical and research expertise is in the field of cardiac imaging including echocardiography and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR). Dr. Ruberg applies imaging in research designed to facilitate improved diagnosis and management of the infiltrative cardiomyopathy cardiac amyloidosis.

Dr. Ellen McPhail

Mayo Clinic

Ellen McPhail is a pathologist in Rochester, MN. She received her medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She specializes in hematopathology with particular expertise in lymphoma diagnosis. She is also the medical director of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic amyloid mass spectrometry typing laboratory

Dr. Michelle Kittleson

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Kittleson is the Director of Postgraduate Education in Heart Failure and Transplantation, Director of Heart Failure Research, and Professor of Medicine at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. She received her MD at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT with internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, and a fellowship in Cardiology at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD, where she also received a PhD in clinical investigation from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Mazen Hanna

Cleveland Clinic

Dr. Hanna is a staff cardiologist in the Section of Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplantation Medicine in the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute. He is Director of the Heart Failure Intensive Care Unit and Co-Director of the Amyloid Program. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Hanna performs right and left heart catheterization as well as endomyocardial biopsy.

Dr. Jignesh Patel

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Dr. Jignesh Patel is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Smidt Heart Institute and is Medical Director of the Heart Transplant Program, Director of the Cardiac Amyloid Program, and Director of Heart Transplant Research. Dr Patel earned his bachelor’s degree with honors at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (UK), and received his medical degree from that institution. Dr Patel performed an internal medicine residency at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and subsequently completed training in cardiovascular diseases in conjunction with his doctorate in the Subspecialty

Dr. Ayan Patel

Tufts Medical Center

Dr. Patel is the Director or the Cardiovascular Imaging and Hemodynamic Laboratory; Director, Cardiac Amyloidosis Program; Director, Women's Heart Center and Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Her research is focused on the diagnosis and management of amyloid cardiomyopathy, echocardiographic evaluation of patients with cardiomyopathy/heart failure, factors affecting vascular function in patients with heart failure and in cardiac transplant recipients, factors affecting vascular function in women.

Meet Our Co-Investigators

Ron I. Riesenberger, MD

Director, Spine Center; Co-Chief, Division of Spinal Surgery; Neurosurgeon; Associate Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

James Kryzanski, MD

Chief, Division of Epilepsy Surgery; Co-Chief, Division of Spine Surgery; Assistant Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine

Eric Burks, MD

Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology

Boston Medical Center

Daniel Luthringer, MD

Director, Cardiac Pathology,

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Scott Kilpatrick, MD

Professor of Pathology,

Cleveland Clinic

Monika Pilichowska, MD, PhD

Director, Clinical Hematology and Hematopathology.

Tufts Medical Center

John Reith, MD

Clinical Professor, Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine

Cleveland Clinic

Fabrizio Remotti, MD

Associate Professor of Pathology & Cell Biology

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Brandon Bellows, PharmD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences (in Medicine)

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Min Qian, PhD

Associate Professor of Biostatistics

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Meet Our Study Coordinators

Lauren Ives, RN

Lab Director

Lauren Ives is an RN at the Cleveland Clinic with 10 years of experience in cardiology research. She currently works with the Cleveland Clinic Amyloidosis Center, coordinating research studies and clinical patient care.

Denise Fine

Senior Researcher

Denise Fine is a Clinical Research Coordinator at Boston Medical Center with 35 years of experience in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. This role manages all aspects of clinical research in the division including numerous pivotal cardiovascular clinical research trials. In addition, Denise assists young investigators initiate research projects to help launch research careers.

Abena Adwetewa-Badu

Clinical Research Coordinator

Abena Adwetewa-Badu is a Clinical Research Coordinator at Tufts Medical Center. She has over a year of experience in screening, enrolling, and conducting clinical trial study activities with patients diagnosed with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Abena uses these experiences to better understand the complex relationship between nutrition, body composition, and strength in advanced HF patients. Collaborating with physicians, patients, and other integral clinic and research staff alike, Abena aims to better understand disease processes and overall improve patient outcomes.

Shira Okhovat is a Clinical Research Coordinator at Cedars-Sinai, specializing in heart failure and heart transplant studies. With expertise in clinical trial management, patient recruitment, and data collection, Shira plays a key role in advancing cutting-edge cardiovascular research. She collaborates closely with multidisciplinary teams to ensure the successful execution of clinical studies, while maintaining the highest standards of patient care and regulatory compliance. Shira is committed to improving outcomes for individuals with heart failure through rigorous research and innovation in the field of cardiology.

Shira Okhovat

Clinical Research Coordinator

William Robert Joseph Quigley

Clinical Research Coordinator

William Robert Joseph Quigley is a clinical research coordinator at the Clinical Cardiovascular Research Laboratory for the Elderly (CCRLE) at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He previously worked with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients, enrolling them in genetic and interventional studies, performing their study visits and processing samples. He now screens and enrolls patients diagnosed with congestive heart failure in interventional and screening studies including the lumbar spinal stenosis study and the Rehab HFpEF study. He also performs study visits for the aforementioned studies as well as TTR silencer studies.

Meet our Coordinating Center Team

Samantha Guadalupe, MHA

Samantha Guadalupe, MHA is the Assistant Director of Clinical Research Operations of the CCRLE and Cardiac Amyloidosis Center at Columbia University Medical Center. She oversees all the regulatory, administrative, and financial aspects of the study and works with sites in these aspects of the study.

Jeffeny Los Santos, MD, MHA

Jeffeny De Los Santos, MD, MHA is the Director of Clinical Research Operations of the CCRLE and Cardiac Amyloidosis Center at Columbia University Medical Center. She expertly supervises the LSS-ATTR study assisting all the staff and study sites in execution of the study with rigor and reproducibility.

Sergio Teruya, MD, MS

Sergio Teruya, MD MPH, Associate Research Scientist is a physician trained in Peru. He is Statistics and Data Management, Biorepository of the CCRLE and Cardiac Amyloidosis Center at Columbia University. He has a Master's in Biostatics and Epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health. He directs the data collection for the LSS-ATTR study.

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