RESEARCH

We develop the most comprehensive platform studying myocardial response to metabolic syndrome in a pig model tightly related to human metabolic syndrome criteria. We incorporate comparative transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomics, functional analyses, and unsupervised machine learning (UML), to discover unknown metabolic pathways connections and links on numerous biomarkers across the metabolic syndrome-associated issues in the heart. This work was published in several well-regarded scientific journals and highlighted by the American Heart Association (AHA) as a milestone in the fight against metabolic syndrome.

We seek to answer the fundamental question how DNA in individual cells, the building cardiovascular blocks, integrate complex biological signals dynamically and spatially within tissue to direct the cardiac behavior in health and disease and how the local conformational DNA dynamics (breathing) and methylation shape the cell-specific transcriptomic patterns

We are the first to show that terahertz radiation (THz) conditions have a reproducible effect on the cellular transcriptome profile. THz's rapid and effective somatic cell reprograming eliminates the need for viral vectors. As a pioneer in this emerging "teragenetics" field, we seek to establish the general concept and application of THz for the needs of cardiovascular repair in meaningful ways and on a biologically relevant timescale.

Dr. Usheva is a widely published expert on fundamental molecular and thermodynamic mechanisms of cellular and vascular functions and presents internationally on her research. She has published more than 120 scientific papers in the highly cited journals including Nature, Cell, Nucleic Acid Research, and was granted four patents. Five of her publications are recognized by “Faculty 1000” (Global Leader expert knowledge) and other publications are commented by Science News, Science Daily, British “Voices,” Cell Cycle. During the past twenty five years her research has been continuously funded by NIH as well as by other governmental and private foundations.

During the past twenty five years our research has been continuously funded by NIH as well as by other governmental and private foundations.

Since 2016 my research and teaching at the Brown University, Department of Surgery is complemented by the expertise of Dr. Sellke and his research group.

 

My work is at the interface of theoretical chemistry, biochemistry, and computational biology  to lay the groundwork for precision and gender- specific medicine, deep cardiovascular phenotyping, and next-generation cardiovascular disease therapeutics.

My goal is to protect academic freedom in the Department and the University, in the expression of ideas in the academic community, and in publishing and disseminating scientific work.

During the past twenty five years our research has been continuously funded by NIH as well as by other governmental and private foundations.

Honors and Awards (selected)

Bulgarian Department of Chemistry “The Inventor of the Year” medal of honor for “Innovation in the industrial hydrolysis of cellulose and furfurals production”; German Foundation for Academic Exchange Research award; Royal Swedish Academy of Science, Sweden, Scholar in Life Science; Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Scholar in Life Science, “The basic gene transcription start complex's composition and functionality”; Princeton University, Princeton NJ , Richard Kay teaching award; Mallinckrodt Foundation,  Young investigator award; William F. Milton, Harvard University award for innovative research on gene transcription; Center for Integrated Nanotechnology, Los Alamos, NM, Sandia National Laboratories Award for Innovative research on thermodynamic- function of genomic DNA; Brown University, Providence, RI Master of Science, honorable; five publications are selected by the “Faculty of 1000 (Global Leader expert. knowledge) for important contribution to the field

BACKGROUND 

Dr. Usheva–Simidjiyska completed master degree in chemical engineering (MEng.) at the Sofia Institute of Chemical Technology that was followed in 1981 by certification as a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) in theoretical chemistry from the German Academy of Science in Berlin (German Democratic Republic), Doctor of Philosophy degree in organic chemistry from the Bulgarian Academy of Science in 1983, and computer programmer.

Dr. Usheva practiced theoretical, structural and functional chemistry and biochemistry at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, the Princeton University, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory where she served as research and visiting fellow.

2000-2005  Assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard University

2006-2015  Associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard University she let the recruitment of fellows in Reproductive Endocrinology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and served as a Director of Basic Research of the fellowship as well as a mentor for PhD students, Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering, Minority Faculty Program K-12 at the Harvard University supervising local high school’s minority students and teachers.

2013 -2015 Adjunct associate professor at Brown University. She supported the education of undergraduate students at the Brown University through introducing functional bacteriophage computational modeling in collaboration with Dr. Peter Shank and Dr. David Warren at the Department of Biology.

2016-2023  Associate Professor of Surgery/research,  Department of Surgery and the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University

2024-        Professor of Surgery/research,  Department of Surgery, Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University

Dr. Usheva holds and has held various leadership roles, including American Coordinator on the Executive Committee Member of “Project Vision”, Ethiopia, Founder of CellCode LLC, Coordinator of the Terahertz Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Europe, International consortium Sub-mmWave Applications and Technologies (THz in cellular reprogramming).

She is also a member of numerous medical and chemical societies and serves on numerous editorial boards including Frontiers, Computational Biology Journal, Austin Surgery Case Report, as well as on the review committees of AHA Clinical and the Surgery Clinical, NIH study section, Computational Biology Study Section at the European Research Council.

 

At Brown University and Warren Alpert Medical School, as a faculty member of the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery I serve as a communicator between the worlds of chemistry, biophysics, applied bioinformatics, and cardiovascular research science. I am introducing the state-of-the-art analytical approaches to the teaching process with the undergraduate, graduate, and the cardiothoracic surgery fellows. As a faculty in the last 20 years I trained more than 70 fellows and students that are presently leaders in education, health care, and science in the U.S.A., Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other counties.