Brisa Pena Castellanos
Asst Professor-Research
- Bioengineering (CEAS)
Email Address:brisa.penacastellanos@cuanschutz.edu
Mailing Address:
- CU Anschutz
Research Complex II
12700 East 19th Avenue
6012
Aurora, CO 80045
Background
Dr. Peña received her BS in chemical engineering from Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, her MS in chemical and process engineering from Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Tarragona, Spain and PhD in chemical, environmental and process engineering from Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Tarragona, Spain. Cardiovascular disease has impacted her and her family directly, having lost two relatives to sudden cardiac arrest. In her personal research to better understand the disease, she learned that treatments for heart failure cannot be applied similarly to both men and women. As an engineer, Dr. Peña is dedicated to engineering effective therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, specifically for women.
Research + Funding
In 2022, she began her Ludeman Center-funded project titled, “Investigating Sex Differences in Heart Failure by Correlating Direct Measurement of Heart-Failure Tissue Mechanics with Fibrotic Gene Expression.” The project focuses on identifying cardiac transcripts and pathways associated with fibrosis, that are most different between males and females using a Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) dataset to analyze the biomechanics of male and female hearts with the most extreme transcriptome differences. The ultimate objective is to use the results obtained from this award to engineer precise sex-specific heart failure therapeutics.
Dr. Peña is also funded by a K25 award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (PI), a Career Development Award from the American Heart Association (PI), an R21 from the NIH/ National Institute on Aging (NIA) (collaborator) and a two R01 from the NIH/NHLBI (collaborator and co-I).The biggest support from the Ludeman Center for Dr. Peña is the community, training, mentorship and continued support for advancing women’s health research.
Transforming Women’s Health
Dr. Peña’s present and future research goals are focused on sex as a biological variable to dissect mechanobiological mechanisms governing sex-related differences in heart failure and to further engineer precise sex-specific therapeutics that target heart failure with a special emphasis on therapeutic approaches specifically tailored for women’s cardiac health.
