Focus on Science With David Manka, PhD

Focus On highlights faculty, staff, students and researchers at the UC Academic Health Center. To suggest someone to be featured, please email uchealthnews@uc.edu.

David Manka, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the division of cardiovascular diseases.  He is an expert vascular biologist and developed the some of the first models of arterial injury in mice still used today today as a PhD student at the University of Virginia. 

How long have you been with UC?
"I came in 2004, after a postdoctoral fellowship at the Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) in Leuven, Belgium.”

What is your current research focus?
"I study the basic mechanisms of vascular disease. Lately, have focused on how the fat that surrounds the outside of arteries (perivascular fat) causes disease on the inside of the vessel.” 

How soon do you expect your findings to impact patient care?
"We are currently focusing on a number of genes that may be accounting for the detrimental effects of the perivascular fat on the adjacent artery. We have some very promising preliminary data in mice that may translate in a few years to the clinic. At this time, however, it is premature to make predictions.”

What do you like to do in your spare time?
"I love playing soccer, traveling and spending time with my three young children."