Sergey Dikalov, PhD

Sergey Dikalov, PhD, is a Research Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Dikalov received PhD degree in Physical Chemistry from the Institute of Chemical Kinetics & Combustion, Novosibirsk. He received a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the mitochondrial biology from NATO Linkage Grant, Frankfurt University, Germany. In 1998, he received training in Free Radical Biology at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, NC. In 2001, Dr. Dikalov was recruited to Emory University, Division of Cardiology, where he directed Free Radicals in Medicine Core lab. He became an expert in the studies of vascular oxidative stress such as NADPH oxidases, uncoupled endothelial NO synthase, xanthine oxidase and mitochondria.

Dr. Dikalov came to Vanderbilt Medical Center in 2011, as an Associate Professor and Director of Free Radicals in Medicine Core, Division of Clinical Pharmacology where he provided invaluable contribution to Vanderbilt Clinical and basic science research projects. Dr. Dikalov is a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) and serves on AHA committees. He has been an invited speaker locally and nationally at academic institutions and scientific meetings. He has authored over 156 original publications, including 46 as first author. These have appeared in high impact journals in cardiovascular sciences such as Journal of Clinical Investigation, Circulation Research, Hypertension, and Journal of Biological Chemistry.

His major accomplishments include the discovery that essential hypertension is linked to mitochondrial dysfunction, overproduction of mitochondrial superoxide, and formation of highly reactive oxidative stress products isolevuglandins. He developed mitochondria-targeted superoxide scavenger mitoTEMPO and mitochondrial scavenger of isolevuglandins mito2HOBA which improve mitochondrial function, reduce vascular dysfunction, and diminish hypertension. He demonstrated that mitochondrial cyclophilin D (CypD) has a previously unidentified role in vascular dysfunction and hypertension and supported the therapeutic potential of targeting CypD in this disease.

He directs the Free Radical in Medicine Core function and training of graduate students and medical fellows in measurements of oxidative stress using state-of-art methods such as Electron Spin Resonance and HPLC providing indispensable support for oxidative stress studies at Vanderbilt.