Dr. Roberto Mota Alvidrez is a Research Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.  Prior to this, he served as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW), Department of Molecular Genetics Center for Translational Neurodegeneration Research, Dallas, Texas, and as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina, Department of Surgery, and the McAllister Heart Institute, both in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Mota Alvidrez works in basic and translational research focusing on the consequences of diabetic disease in cardiovascular and metabolic function particularly atherothrombosis. His research program focuses in understanding the molecular mechanisms that guide why diabetic patients have worst and accelerated vascular atherosclerosis with life threatening complications in sex-specific disease progression. His research has helped develop the first diabetic, atherosclerotic, obese and dyslipidemic rat model and a non-invasive, longitudinal pre-clinical SPECT/CT imaging tool to externally evaluate inflammation in atherosclerosis. As a result, Dr. Mota Alvidrez has been able to obtain independent funding for his research as a Principal Investigator as well as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

Dr. Mota Alvidrez’s research program identifies timely and accurate preclinical diagnostic modalities that can be translated to the clinic in diabetic vasculopathy. The program also focuses on identifying therapeutic targets and vascular drug delivery and immunotherapies in the still unresolved and important biomedical problem of diabetic vasculopathy with three innovative and timely approaches:  1) use of tissue specific knockout animal models with a focus in cardiovascular pathophysiology using translational small animal surgical approaches to mimic human conditions, 2) discovery of novel preventive and diagnostic cardiovascular serologic biomarkers of disease to translate preclinical point of care approaches in clinical pathology and laboratory medicine, and 3) implementation of molecular imaging and immunobiology assays and techniques for parallel in vivo cardiovascular morphology/function and protein/mRNA assays ex vivo using the state-of-the-art metabolomics and lipidomic assessment in genetically modified small animal models.

Dr. Mota Alvidrez has received numerous awards, some examples include: UTSW Postdoctoral Summer Travel Award 2020, Experimental Biology 2020; Histochemical Society Award, Experimental Biology 2020; and ASIP Sobel Award, American Society for Investigative Pathology, 2019.

He is a member of many professional societies, including the Society of Toxicology, the Society of Vascular Surgery, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, the American Society for Investigative Pathology, the American Diabetes Association, and the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanic and Native Americans in Science.

Dr. Mota Alvidrez is a Section Co-Editor for Vascular Wound Healing and Tissue Repair and a Peer Reviewer for the American Heart Association and the American Journal of Pathology, to name a few.

View a list of Dr. Mota Alvidrez’s publications here.