Meet the 2025 Winners: Alexandra Babicheva, PhD & Kelsey Sack, MD, PhD
Dr. Aleksandra Babicheva is an Assistant Professor in the Hormel Institute at the University of Minnesota. She earned her PhD in Physiology in Russia and completed the postdoctoral training in pulmonary vascular disease with Dr. Jason Yuan. Dr. Babicheva has been the ATS member since 2016 and received 2017 Abstract Scholarship from the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly. She participated in 2021 ATS New Faculty Boot Camp which prepared her for a faculty position. Now she is an active member of Early Career Working Group and an Apprentice at the Planning Committee within Pulmonary Circulation Assembly. In addition Dr. Babicheva was selected for the Editor Apprentice Program by one of the ATS journals, American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. Her research interests include the molecular mechanisms of vascular remodeling in pulmonary hypertension (PH). Her lab is studying the role of calcium signaling in the development of endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition in humans and animals with PH which resulted in her first senior-authored publication.
Dr. Sack is an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed her fellowship training in 2024 at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center combined Harvard fellowship. Dr. Sack's mentorship team includes Dr. Robert Flaumenhaft, Chief of the Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis at the BIDMC, and her co-mentor, Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chief of MGH Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Sack's research is supported by an HTRS Mentored Research Award from the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Research Society (HTRS), which was supported by an educational grant from CSL Behring. Dr. Sack explores the role of mechanosensitive ion channels in the development of critical illness-associated thrombosis, including sepsis-associated coagulopathy and acute respiratory distress-associated microvascular thrombosis. Her interests include understanding how inflammatory signals, and the endothelial mechano-microenvironment interact, facilitating a transition to a thrombo-prone endothelium. Dr. Sack's research program aims to target vascular-associated mechanotransduction pathways in the setting of inflammation in an effort to prevent injurious intravascular microthrombus formation while enhancing hemostasis.
Criteria
- ATS PC member
- Postdoctoral Fellow, senior postdoc, instructor or within the first two years of a faculty appointment/lectureship.
- Submission of a complete nomination package including 1) letters of support from 2 different members of the assembly describing the candidate’s contributions, potential, and why the award is appropriate; 2) the candidate’s curriculum vitae and 3) a copy of an abstract that will be presented at the ATS meeting on which the candidate is first or senior author.
- Has not yet received a career development award (e.g., NHLBI K08/23/99 award, VA career development award, AHA career development award, new investigator/career development awards from UKRI, Wellcome, ERC awards) at the time of nomination.
- Will be expected to serve as a PC executive committee apprentice following acceptance of the award for education and to encourage ongoing ATS participation