Sauvage Fellowship

Fellows study advanced vascular surgical techniques in their first year. During the second they use these techniques in a clinical setting. Many Fellows then return to their practices, teach and/or lead research projects.

Baohong Cao MD, PhD

Dr. Cao is an assitant professor in the University of Pittsburgh tissue engineering group and is known for his discovery of stem cells existing in skeletal muscle that can be grown and multiplied.

As a Sauvage fellow he will utilize his stem cell expertise in the BEAT grant project which is using stem cells to repair myocardial infarcts (blockages of blood flow to the heart).

Dr. Cao's discoveries, skills and expertise will fill several niches in the ongoing work of The Hope Heart Program at Benaroya Research Institute. 

Dedomenico Scholar

The award began in 2006 in honor of Hope benefactor and first Sauvage Fellow Dr. Mark Dedomenico.  Previous Dedomenico Scholars include Dr. Patrick Murphy of Seattle University, Dr. Merv Merrilees from Auckland University in New Zealand, and Ingrid Harten of the University of Washington.

Paul A. Keire

Dr. Keire graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a Bachelor of Science with honors in Chemistry and a Bachelors of Science in Microbiology and Immunology. He earned a Masters in Biological Sciences from WrightStateUniversity.  Both his undergraduate and Masters thesis projects focused on skin grafts. During his graduate career at UW, Paul earned numerous awards including the Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology for outstanding research in cardiovascular medicine, and a Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Heart Association.

In his doctoral studies, Paul examined Versican (a large extracellular matrix proteoglycan seen in many human tissues) and the relationship to elastogenesis. This knowledge was used to enrich vascular constructs in collaboration with Cytograft Tissue Engineering, the makers of the first completely cell-derived vascular grafts implanted in humans. Paul discovered that V3 technology was useful in enriching the constructs in elastin, and improving the functional properties and performance of vascular constructs. For this work, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Pathology at the University of Washington in 2009.

Paul looks forward to working with Drs. Wight, Vernon, and Allen in the Hope Heart Program at the Benaroya Research Institute.