Fellowship helps doctoral student get to the heart of cardiac disease

One question has been on researcher Abigail Doku’s mind for years. “If we know that there are ways to prevent illness, why do we often wait until after we get sick to take action?”

Doku's fascination with the human body, its vulnerabilities, and its capacities inspired her to take action — through science. It fueled her undergraduate research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in her native Ghana, where her thesis work led to policy proposals to lessen the impacts of cardiovascular disease on office workers.

Now, the first-generation college graduate is a doctoral student in the Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program and the recipient of a 2024-25 Dr. Ray A. Gaskins Health Sciences Graduate Fellowship.

Doku continues to address the key concern driving her research: understanding and improving health.

Working in the lab of Junco Warren, assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Doku studies heart disease — an illness that touched her after she lost a family member to heart failure. Her current research addresses heart failure that occurs when the heart’s left ventricle expands beyond its typical size. The condition, known as dilated cardiomyopathy, is the third most common form of heart failure.

“With dilated cardiomyopathy, the heart muscle is not able to pump out enough blood to meet the body’s demand for oxygen and nutrients,” Doku said. “So if there is any treatment for heart failure, it should target the heart muscle.”

Doku, who also holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology from Central Michigan University, investigates how muscular activity influences healing processes.

“Leveraging her experience in muscle physiology, Abigail demonstrated creativity in cardiac research, bringing unique insights to my projects,” said Warren, who serves as Doku’s research mentor. Warren’s lab seeks to uncover the potential of a molecule called PERM1 for treating failing hearts.

“If successful, this therapeutic strategy could help patients who have already developed heart failure with systolic dysfunction recover cardiac and mitochondrial function,” Warren said. “Abigail is working to elucidate the mechanisms by which gene delivery of PERM1 to the heart enhances contractility and energy metabolism. She has already become an important member of my lab, and I am excited to see her continue to grow as a researcher.”

Doku hopes that, decades from now, she will be able to support and inspire the next generation of young scientists.

In addition to supporting conference attendance and publication expenses, the Gaskins fellowship will help Doku with confocal microscope analysis, which she uses to measure cell size and heart muscle volume in mouse models.

Gaskins supports three $5,000 fellowships for students conducting doctoral research mentored by primary faculty at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC in Roanoke. Gaskins is a Virginia Tech alumnus and health and fitness enthusiast who retired from the faculty of Hampden-Sydney College.