Melody Chemaly

I am a research specialist at the Vascular Surgery Group and Translational Vascular Medicine Team with a background in pharmacy, biomarker discovery, and translational research. I completed my PhD at Ulster University (Northern Ireland, UK) and performed a postdoctoral fellowship in pre-clinical drug development in neuroinflammation at Harvard Medical School (MA, USA) specifically working on the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. I then joined the Vascular Surgery group at KI in 2020 within an academic-pharma collaboration with Novo Nordisk and worked extensively with both in vitro and in vivo models targeting the vascular smooth muscle cells in models of vascular remodeling and atherosclerosis. My expertise includes biomarker discovery, mechanism-driven drug discovery, evaluation of therapeutic targets, and development of targeted delivery strategies to improve therapeutic efficacy and specificity.

I am particularly interested in exploring the role of plaque angiogenesis and intraplaque hemorrhage in atherosclerosis as this remains an untargeted pathway in patients with cardiovascular disease. Leveraging our group's biobank BiKE and its associated large-scale databanks to guide molecular discoveries, I am passionate about finding ways to translate these discoveries using 2D and 3D in vitro models as well as developing in vivo methods to administer therapeutics directly into the vessel wall to increase efficiency and limit side effects. 

• EAS Young Fellow 2026-2028
• KI FIELD Fellow 2026-2027
• Member of the PhD admission board at MMK department, KI - (2022-2023) 
• Organiser of scientific dissemination EU AtheroNET COST Network and career development talks - (2023-2026)
• Member of the organising committee of Vascular Interest Group of the Scandinavian Society of Physiology - (2024-2026)
• Board member of the membership committee at NAVBO /IVBM (North American Vascular Biology Organization) (2023-2025)
• Scientific communication within the American Heart Association (AHA, ATVB_Net)
• Co-organiser of the Cardiovascular research Program annual retreat at KI (CV research network) - (2022-2026)
• Co-organiser of the Vascular Cell Biology Course and responsible for integrating the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 - (2021-2026)
• Finalist for the early career EAS Grants for individuals 2025

I am actively involved in teaching and course organisation within our group (20%) and as an active member of the Cardiovascular Research Program (CVP) within KI. I am aslo engaged in scientific communication within European (COST Action AtheroNET) and international (ATVB, AHA, NAVBO) networks. 

• Co supervisor of PhD students (2022- present and 2024-present)
• Main supervisor of Batchelor students and MSc students (2022- 2026)
• Examiner of MSc thesis (2022-2026)