Dr. Yu Chen
Professor

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Proteomic Profiling to Identify Novel Midlife Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease Risk in Women

We will apply Seer’s Proteograph^® platform to profile midlife serum proteomes in a well-characterized women’s cohort with long-term follow-up for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). By integrating proteomic signatures with immune, viral, and lifestyle risk factors, we aim to identify novel biomarkers predictive of late-onset AD. This first systematic proteomic study of midlife samples in women addresses a critical window for risk stratification and holds promise for informing early prevention strategies.

Dr. Yu Chen Dr. Yu Chen is a full professor in the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Population Health, at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She received her PhD with distinction in Epidemiology from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. A chronic disease epidemiologist, she conducts multidisciplinary research on how host and environmental factors influence chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. She was a recipient of the Outstanding New Environmental Scientist Award (ONES), a prestigious honor from the NIEHS. Dr. Chen has received multiple awards from the NCI (R01CA204113, U01CA182934, and U01CA290680 pending), NHLBI (R21HL106309, UG3HL169656), NIDCR (R21DE018438), NIEHS (R21ES023421, R01ES017541, and R01ES035219), the American Heart Association, and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, supporting her work on various biomarkers and chronic disease risk. She joined the NYU Women’s Health Study (NYUWHS) team in 2006 and is the current PI of this NCI-funded prospective cohort study of more than 14,000 women recruited between 1985 and 1991 and followed to the present. She is deeply committed to advancing research on biomarkers and Alzheimer’s disease, particularly as the NYUWHS cohort continues to age. As of summer 2025, she has published 261 peer-reviewed journal articles (h-index = 80). Looking ahead, she plans to deepen her focus on the precision of cognitive aging by applying high-dimensional data science—including multi-omics and immune profiling—to prospective cohorts.

Dr. Tara Stanne
Senior Research Scientist/Associate Professor

University of Gothenburg

Leveraging proteogenomics to discover ischemic stroke subtype-specific protein isoforms

We will apply Seer’s Proteograph^® platform to perform unbiased proteomic profiling of plasma from a well-characterized ischemic stroke cohort, integrating these data with genomic information to identify prothrombotic protein isoforms. By comparing controls with stroke cases and major etiological subtypes, including cryptogenic stroke, this study aims to uncover novel isoform-level signatures of disease. These findings hold translational potential for improving diagnosis, patient stratification, and precision therapy development in stroke.

Dr. Tara Stanne is an associate professor and co-group leader of the stroke research group at the Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Following undergraduate studies at Mount Allison University in Canada, she obtained a PhD at the University of Gothenburg. She then pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford and London Imperial College, where her work focused on chromatin remodelling and other gene regulation mechanisms. For the past 14 years, her research has been concentrated on identifying novel genetic and molecular biomarkers for ischemic stroke. This encompasses studies on stroke subtypes and stroke outcomes, with the goal of better understanding the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, and to improve prognostication. Her primary interest is the prothrombotic pathway, which is characterized by crosstalk between coagulation and inflammation. Her research integrates genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic analyses. Dr. Stanne is an active member of the International Stroke Genomics Consortium (ISGC), through which she has an extensive network of collaborators. She has 60+ publications in international medical and basic research peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Philip S. Tsao
Professor of Medicine, Cardiovascular Medicine

Stanford University School of Medicine

Identification of Circulating Biomarkers of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) disease

We will leverage Seer’s Proteograph^® platform to perform unbiased plasma proteomic profiling in both mouse models and human cohorts of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). By correlating circulating protein signatures with disease stage, imaging readouts, and vascular gene expression, this study aims to uncover novel biomarkers that enable earlier diagnosis and improved management of AAA. This first-in-kind approach holds translational potential to address a major unmet clinical need.

Dr. Phil Tsao is Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine), Stanford University School of Medicine and Associate Chief of Staff for Precision Health at the Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System. He received his PhD in Cardiovascular Physiology from Thomas Jefferson University. After performing postdoctoral research at Stanford, he joined the faculty where his basic science lab has investigated the molecular mechanisms of vascular disease including atherosclerosis and abdominal aortic aneurysms. His laboratory has primarily focused on signaling pathways and how they regulate vascular function and transcription. For this line of investigation, they utilize a variety of experimental approaches including molecular biology, cell biology, preclinical animal models, as well as translational clinical studies. Recent work has focused on how risk factors such as smoking and vaping can influence vascular inflammation and disease progression.