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Faculty Detail    
Name PANKAJ ARORA
Director, Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic Program
Director, Clinical & Translational Research Program
Associate Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Disease, Department of Medicine
Adjunct Faculty, HudsonAlpha Institute of Biotechnology
 
Campus Address FOT 705 Zip 3407
Phone
E-mail  parora@uab.edu
Other websites HudsonAlpha
     

Education
Medical School  Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, India    2003  MD 

Certifications
ABIM Internal Medicine  2011 
ABIM Cardiovascular Disease  2016 
National Board of Echocardiography  2016 


Faculty Appointment(s)
Appointment Type Department Division Rank
Primary  Med - Cardiovascular Disease  Med - Cardiovascular Disease Associate Professor
Center  Comprehensive Cardiovascular Ctr  Comprehensive Cardiovascular Ctr Associate Professor
Center  Comprehensive Diabetes Center  Comprehensive Diabetes Center Associate Professor
Center  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci  Ctr for Clinical & Translational Sci Associate Professor
Center  Ctr For Social Science & Justice Research  Ctr For Social Science & Justice Research Associate Professor
Center  Minority Health & Research Center  Minority Health & Research Center Associate Professor
Center  Nephrology Research & Training Center  Nephrology Research & Training Center Associate Professor
Center  Nutrition Sciences Research  Nutrition Obesity Res Ctr (NORC) Associate Professor

Biographical Sketch 
Pankaj Arora, MD, FAHA, completed his MD at Manipal University in India. He received his postdoctoral training in complex-trait genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He subsequently completed his clinical cardiology fellowship training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Currently, Dr. Arora is an assistant professor in the division of cardiology at UAB. In addition, Dr. Arora is a past chair of the Early Career Committee of Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Council at the American Heart Association and is a member of the leadership committee. Dr. Arora’s current efforts are focused on studying genetic basis of natriuretic peptide levels in population cohorts. Arora’s laboratory is actively working with HudsonAlpha faculty investigator Devin Absher, PhD, on dissecting the molecular mechanisms behind racial differences in natriuretic peptide levels. Dr. Arora’s long-term goal is primarily to translate genetic discoveries into an improved understanding of human physiology through clinically-focused research.

Society Memberships
Organization Name Position Held Org Link
Functional Genomics & Translational Biology Council, American Heart Association  Member, FGTB/Epi Molecular Determinants Science Subcommittee   
Functional Genomics & Translational Biology Council, American Heart Association  Member, Leadership and Professional Education & Publications Committee  https://professional.heart.org/professional/councilList.jsp?committeeCode=FGTBEXEC 
Functional Genomics & Translational Biology Council, American Heart Association  Member, Nominating Committee  https://professional.heart.org/professional/councilList.jsp?committeeCode=FGTBNOM 
Functional Genomics & Translational Biology Council, American Heart Association  Faculty Advisor, Early Career Committee  https://professional.heart.org/professional/councilList.jsp?committeeCode=FGTBEC 



Research/Clinical Interest
Title
Racial differences in Natriuretic Peptide response to glucose challenge
Description
After medicine residency, I joined the Framingham Heart Study for formal research training in complex trait genetics and genomics to conduct genetic association analyses. The efforts resulted in co-author publication of manuscripts from the consortium in Nature and Nature genetics. Over the course of research training, I identified a novel regulatory pathway for ANP expression involving a microRNA. The first-authored manuscript based on this work was published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation. I was selected as one of the finalists for the FGTB Young Investigator Award for the 2012 AHA meeting. In a separate first-authored manuscript published in the Journal of American Heart Association, I was able to demonstrate that natriuretic peptides are increased significantly with weight loss in obese individuals. My current research revolves around a central hypothesis that a deficiency in natriuretic peptide signaling promotes cardiometabolic disease, which represents a therapeutic target. In 2015, I was selected as one of the finalists for the ACC Molecular & Cellular cardiology, Young Investigator Award. In this effort, we were able to elucidate the influence of acute carbohydrate challenge on the ANP levels with no effect on BNP levels in whites. The first-authored manuscript for this work was published in the Journal of American College of Cardiology. As a direct extension of and natural complement to these prior and ongoing investigations, one of the studies in our research program will focus on identifying hypertensive subgroups in which the blood pressure elevation and increased salt-sensitivity is related to the association of ANP genetic variant rs5068.

Selected Publications 
Publication PUBMEDID
Full List of Published Work in NCBI My Bibliography:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/149ado_g6o7AS/bibliograpahy/50266893/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

(1) Arora P, Newton C. Blood pressure and human genetic variation in the general population. Current Opinion in Cardiology. 2010 May; 25(3): 229-237
(2) Padmanabhan S, Melander O, Johnson T…44 authors…Newton-Cheh C, Arora P…23 authors….Munroe PB, Caulfield MJ, Zanchetti A, Dominiczak AF. Genomewide Association Study of Blood Pressure Extremes Identifies Variant near UMOD Associated with Hypertension. PLoS genetics. 2010 Oct 28; 6(10): e1001177
(3) Ehret GB*, Munroe PB*, Rice KM*…21 authors…Arora P…304 authors...Psaty B*, Abecasis GR*, Chakravarti A*, Elliott P*, Duijn CMV*, Newton-Cheh C*, Levy D*, Caulfield MJ*, Johnson T*. Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk. Nature. 2011 Sep; 478(7367): 103-109.
(4) Wain LV, Verwoert GC, O'Reilly PF….23 authors…Arora P…193 authors…Chakravarti A, Abecasis GR, Gudnason V, Newton-Cheh C, Levy D, Munroe PB, Psaty BM, Caulfield MJ, Rao DC, Tobin MD, Elliott P, Van Duijn CM. Genome-wide association study identifies six new loci influencing pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure. Nature Genetics. 2011 Sep; 43(10): 1005-1011.
(5) Khan AM, Cheng S, Magnusson M, Larson MG, Newton-Cheh C, McCabe EL, Coviello AD, Florez JC, Fox CS, Levy D, Robins SJ, Arora P, Bhasin S, Lam CS, Vasan RS, Melander O, Wang TJ. Cardiac natriuretic peptides, obesity, and insulin resistance: Evidence from two community-based studies. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 2011;96:3242-3249
(6) Fox ER*, Young JH*…64 authors…Arora P....193 authors….Larson MG*, Järvelin MR*, Psaty BM*, Abecasis GR*, Elliott P*, van Duijn CM*, Newton-Cheh C*. Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study. Hum Mol Genet. 2011 Jun 1; 20(11): 2273-84.
(7) Buys ES, Ko Y-C, Alt C, Hayton SR, Jones A…8 authors….Arora P….14 authors….Bloch KD, Krasander BR. Soluble Guanylate Cyclase α1–Deficient Mice: A Novel Murine Model for Primary Open Angle Glaucoma. PloS one. 2013 8(3): e60156
(8) Arora P, Wu C, Khan AM, Bloch DB, Davis-Dusenbery BN, Ghorbani A, Spagnolli E, Martinez A, Ryan A, Tainsh LT, Kim S, Rong J, Huan T, Freedman JE, Levy D, Miller KK, Hata A, Del Monte F, Vandenwijngaert S, Swinnen M, Janssens S, Holmes TM, Buys ES, Bloch KD, Newton-Cheh C, Wang TJ. Atrial natriuretic peptide is negatively regulated by microrna-425. The Journal of clinical investigation. 2013;123:3378-3382
(9) Arora P. Glucagon-like Peptide-1 receptor-atrial natriuretic Peptide axis: a novel mechanism for blood pressure regulation. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2013 Oct 1; 6(5): 523
(10) Mak GS, Sawaya H, Khan AM, Arora P, Martinez A, Allicia R, Newton-Cheh C, Wang TJ, Scherrer-Crosbie M. Effects of Subacute Dietary Salt Intake and Acute Volume Expansion on Diastolic Function in Young Normotensive Individuals. European heart journal cardiovascular Imaging. 2013 Nov; 14 (11): 1092-8.
(11) Arora P. Salt, immune function and the risk of autoimmune diseases. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2013 Dec; 6(6): 642-3
(12) Arora P. Metabolomics Yield a Novel Biomarker for Predicting Diabetes Mellitus Risk in Humans. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics.. 2014 Feb 1; 7 (1): 95-6
(13) Pilbrow A*, Arora P*, Martinez-Fernandez A*. Top advances in functional genomics and translational biology for 2013. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2014 Feb 1; 7(1):89-92
(14) Bloch DB, Li P, Bloch EG, Berenson DF, Galdos RL, Arora P, Malhotra R, Wu C, Yang W. LMKB/MARF1 Localizes to mRNA Processing Bodies, Interacts with Ge-1, and Regulates IFI44L Gene Expression. PloS one. 2014; Apr 22; 9(4): e94784
(15) Arora P. Obesity genetics and epigenetics: dissecting causality. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2014 Jun; 7 (3): 395-6
(16) Wu C, Arora P. MicroRNA Passenger Strand: Orchestral Symphony of Paracrine Signaling. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2014 Aug; 7(4): 567-8
(17) Ho JE*, Arora P*, Walford GA, Ghorbani A, Guanaga DP, Dhakal BP, Nathan DI, Buys ES, Florez JC, Newton-Cheh C, Lewis GD, Wang TJ. Effect of phosphodiesterase inhibition on insulin resistance in obese individuals. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2014;3:e001001
(18) Wu C, Arora P. Long Noncoding RNA–MicroRNA–mRNA: A Novel Tripartite Axis in the Regulation of Cardiac Hypertrophy. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2014 Oct; 7 (5): 529-31
(19) Arora P, Song Y, Wolf M, Sabatine M, Carney E, Guanaga D, Russell JY, Karol C, Torre M, Cheng S, Azzahir A, Strachan SM, O'Neill DC, Valcour A, Taylor B, Swales H, Plotnikoff G, Dusek J, Harrell F, Newton-Cheh C, Wang TJ. Vitamin D Therapy in Individuals with Pre-hypertension or Hypertension: The DAYLIGHT Trial. Circulation. 2015 Jan 20; 131 (3):254-62
(20) Arora P, Reingold J, Baggish A, Guanaga DP, Wu C, Ghorbani A, Song Y, Chen-Tournaux A, Khan AM, Tainsh LT, Buys ES, Williams JS, Heublein DM, Burnett JC, Semigran MJ, Bloch KD, Scherrer-Crosbie M, Newton-Cheh C, Kaplan LM, Wang TJ. Weight loss, saline loading, and the natriuretic peptide system. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2015;4:e001265
(21) Wu C, Arora P. Long Non-Coding Mhrt RNA: Molecular Crowbar Unravel Insights into Heart Failure Treatment. Circulation. Cardiovascular genetics. 2015 Feb; 8(1): 213-5
(22) Bajaj NS, Ather S, Gaba S, Aggarwal H, Arora P, Ghimire G, Bhatia V, Parashar A, Ahmed MI, Ahmed A, Leesar MA. Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors improve mortality after aspiration thrombectomy in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. International journal of cardiology. 2015 Mar 17; 187:206-207.
(23) Bajaj NS, Kalra R, Aggarwal H, Gaba S, Ather S, Arora G, McGiffin D, Ahmed M, Aslibekyan S, Arora P. Comparison of approaches to revascularization in patients with multivessel coronary artery disease presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction: A comprehensive meta-analysis of randomized control trials. Journal of American Heart Association. 2015;4: e002540
(24) Konijeti GG, Arora P, Boylan MR, Song Y, Harrell FE, Newton-Cheh C, Dillon ONeill CD, Korzenik JR, Wang TJ, Chan AT. Vitamin D Supplementation Modulates T Cell-Mediated Immunity in Humans: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 2016;101:533-8.
(25) Arora P, Wu C, Hamid T, Arora G, Agha O, Allen K, Tainsh R, Hu D, Ryan A, Domain IJ, Buys E, Bloch DB, Bloch KD, Prabhu SD, Newton-Cheh C, Wang TJ. Acute metabolic influences on the natriuretic peptide system in humans. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2016;67:804-812
(26) Wu C, Arora P, Agha O, Hurst LA, Allen K, Nathan DI, Hu D, Jiramongkolchai P, Smith JG, Melander O, Trenson S, Janssens SP, Domian I, Wang TJ, Bloch KD, Buys ES, Bloch DB, Newton-Cheh C. Novel microRNA regulators of atrial natriuretic peptide production. Molecular and Cellular Biology. 2016 May 16. pii: MCB.01114-15  
 

Keywords
Non-invasive cardiology, patient care, deficiencies in natriuretic peptide signaling, microRNAs, vitamin D, obesity and cardiometabolic disease