Desislava Doycheva

Biography:

Desislava Doycheva, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiology at Loma Linda University. She has over a decade of experience in translational neuroscience and cardiovascular research, with extensive expertise in small-animal disease models, molecular biology, and mechanistic studies of ischemic injury. Her earlier work focused on neonatal hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy and ischemic stroke, where she contributed to multiple NIH- and AHA-funded studies investigating endoplasmic reticulum stress, inflammation, and neuroprotection.

In recent years, she has expanded her research program into cardiovascular disease, leading studies in rat myocardial ischemia–reperfusion models to investigate the anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective mechanisms of sodium–glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors. Her current work examines both acute and chronic SGLT2 inhibitor treatment in diabetic and non-diabetic myocardium, with a particular focus on TXNIP/NLRP3 inflammasome signaling, oxidative stress, and post–myocardial infarction remodeling. She has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications and is actively involved in NIH and American Heart Association grant development, mentoring, and collaborative translational research.