Natalia Trayanova, the Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been selected to receive the 2021 Douglas P. Zipes Lectureship Award, given jointly by the Heart Rhythm Society and the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society.

This award recognizes an individual who has made a significant and unique contribution to the field of cardiac pacing and  electrophysiology as a basic scientist. In 2019, Natalia received the Society’s Distinguished Scientist Award, which means that she has been selected for both of the Society’s highest scientific honors.

A pioneer in the use of 3-D replicas of the heart and its electrical function that are personalized to individual patients with certain heart conditions, Natalia co-directs the Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE), a research institute aimed at applying predictive data-driven approaches, computational modeling, and innovations in cardiac imaging to the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. She also leads the Computational Cardiology Laboratory in the Institute for Computational Medicine. Her research aims to more precisely predict who is at risk for sudden death or stroke from ventricular or atrial fibrillation, two types of irregular heartbeats, as well as determine what the optimal treatment is for these disorders.