Scott A. LeMaire, M.D.

Professor
Department of Medicine - Surgery

Dr. LeMaire received the award for major contributions to the field of thoracic aortic disease. In the first study for which he was nominated for this award, Dr. LeMaire and his collaborators showed that common genetic variants in the region encompassing FBN1 are associated with thoracic aortic disease in patients without known genetic disorders. This entirely unexpected finding suggested that Marfan syndrome and sporadic aortic disease share common pathobiological mechanisms.

In another study, Dr. LeMaire’s group was the first to show that impaired AKT2 signaling may contribute to aneurysm and dissection formation. The study represented an ideal example of the direct bedside-to-bench approach that Dr. LeMaire’s lab employs, in that an abnormal finding in aortic tissue samples from patients with thoracic aortic disease was used to generate a hypothesis that was then tested in an animal model and subsequently explored on a mechanistic level.

Finally, in a third publication, Dr. LeMaire collaborated with Dr. Lynn Sakai at Oregon Health & Science University to identify circulating protein fragments that might help physicians diagnose and treat aortic disease early. This study was the first to demonstrate that circulating fibrillin-1 fragments represent a new potential biomarker for thoracic aortic aneurysms and acute aortic dissection.

Dr. LeMaire’s nomination was based on the following publications:

Lemaire SA, McDonald ML, Guo DC, Russell L, Miller CC 3rd, Johnson RJ, Bekheirnia MR, Franco LM, Nguyen M, Pyeritz RE, Bavaria JE, Devereux R, Maslen C, Holmes KW, Eagle K, Body SC, Seidman C, Seidman JG, Isselbacher EM, Bray M, Coselli JS, Estrera AL, Safi HJ, Belmont JW, Leal SM, Milewicz DM. Genome-wide association study identifies a susceptibility locus for thoracic aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections spanning FBN1 at 15q21.1. Nat Genet. 2011 Sep 11;43(10):996-1000.

Shen YH, Zhang L, Ren P, Nguyen MT, Zou S, Wu D, Wang XL, Coselli JS, LeMaire SA. AKT2 confers protection against aortic aneurysms and dissections. Circ Res. 2013 Feb 15;112(4):618-32.

Marshall LM, Carlson EJ, O'Malley J, Snyder CK, Charbonneau NL, Hayflick SJ, Coselli JS, Lemaire SA, Sakai LY. Thoracic aortic aneurysm frequency and dissection are associated with fibrillin-1 fragment concentrations in circulation. Circ Res. 2013 Oct 25;113(10):1159-68.