The Future of our Fellows Is Bright

As part of one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, UT Southwestern’s Division of Cardiology offers a robust fellowship program that leaves physicians well-trained for a future in a wide range of cardiology conditions.

Currently, there are 45 fellows in our program. Below are brief highlights and descriptions of just a few of their accomplishments and areas of expanding expertise.

Neil Keshvani, M.D., is a T32 research fellow with interest and expertise in implementation science. He is helping lead multiple clinical trials, including one to assess the impact of polypills on complex cardiac disease states under the guidance of Ambarish Pandey, M.D. and Thomas Wang, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine. In 2023, Dr. Keshvani published an article regarding utilization of cardiac rehabilitation in Circulation Heart Failure and another on sex differences in heart failure outcomes in European Journal of Heart Failure.

Kayla Riggs, M.D., is a third-year cardiology fellow and is the co-chair of the Texas ACC Fellows in Training section. She is also the UT Southwestern Ambassador for the popular CardioNerds podcast, and a co-chair for the UT Southwestern Supporting Women Achieving Greatness (SWAG) Fellow Subcommittee. She has published editorials on valve calcification in aortic stenosis with Dharam Kumbhani, M.D., Professor and Section Chief/Director of Interventional Cardiology, in the American Journal of Cardiology and normal-flow low gradient aortic stenosis with Amit Goyal, M.D.,in JACC Advances.

Glynnis Garry, M.D., is a third-year cardiology fellow who has interest in developing methods to regenerate the heart following injury by “reprogramming” scar cells into cardiomyocyte-like cells. She is the first author of a manuscript in Nature Cell Biology with Eric Olson, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology, in which they discovered a protein, PHF7, that is a potent activator of this process in adult human cells. She has published in Cell Stem Cell, Circulation, and JCI on cardiac reprogramming in ischemic heart disease, and she received the Melvin L. Marcus Early Career Investigator Award in Basic Cardiovascular Sciences at the 2023 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. She was recently awarded a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award for Medical Scientists and an NIH K-08 award to continue her laboratory studies.

Lisandro Maya-Ramos, M.D., Ph.D., is a post-doctoral T32 research fellow working with two mentors, Joseph Hill, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Moss Heart Center, and Philipp Scherer, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center, to address and elucidate the role of adipose tissue extracellular matrix derived peptides in inflammatory diseases, including heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. This year, he was one of only 25 scientists nationwide selected for the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Hanna H. Gray Fellowship, a program that provides funding through fellowship and into the first years of a faculty position.

Franck Azobou Tonleu, M.D., is a second-year cardiology fellow recently selected for the American College of Cardiology 2024-2025 Fellow in Training Section Leadership Council. He is also active as a member of the Cardiovascular Training Section for the Texas Chapter of the American College of Cardiology and volunteers locally with community health and educational events. He has a strong interest in medical education and has been accepted for the ACC Educator Fundamental Skills Course in February 2024.

Amit Saha, M.D., is a second-year cardiology fellow who presented his work on the characterization of patient-specific pathways in cardiogenic shock at the 2023 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. He has been active as a team member of the Clinical Trials Section of acc.org. His first author publication on longitudinal changes in troponin and the risk of heart failure in black adults was published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure in 2023.