Edward Soltesz, MD, and Cherie Parungo, MD, both Cardiac Surgery Laboratory and General Surgery fellows, were among 35 physicians in the country to receive NIH funding from the NRSA Post-doctoral Fellowship Program. Soltesz’s research will employ gene transfer using adenovirus and adeno-associated virus vectors during cardiopulmonary bypass to restore levels of the calcium regulatory protein SERCA in the hopes of restoring heart function. Parungo’s research involves the characterization of the effects of Second Mitochondria-derived Activator of Caspase (SMAC), a novel pro-apoptotic protein, and SMAC mutatants in the hopes of attenuating the protein and decreasing apoptosis and heart failure after cardiac revascularization .