Prof. Laura Marcu has received a grant award for a NIH R01 grant  from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. This award will continue to fund her group’s research toward the development of an intravascular diagnostic technology combining fluorescence lifetime and ultrasound contrast.  The proposed studies target development of new paradigms for diagnosis and management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease that affects over 80 million individuals in the United States and represents the leading cause of death in the Western societies. This award will enable construction of unique bi-modal intravascular catheters that can improve the diagnostic ability of IVUS, the most widely used intravascular imaging technique in interventional cardiology.