Julie Phillippi, PhD

After receiving a BS in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Julie Phillippi went on to earn her PhD from Carnegie Mellon University. After her post-doctoral training in Tissue Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, she joined the University of Pittsburgh faculty in 2007 at the rank of Research Assistant Professor. Together with Thomas Gleason, MD, she helped to establish the Thoracic Aortic Disease Research Laboratory. In 2019 she was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure of Cardiothoracic Surgery. In 2020, Dr. Phillippi was appointed Vice Chair of Cardiac Research in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. She re-established her research program as the Cardiac Research Laboratory and serves as PI and Scientific Director. Dr. Phillippi has a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering, and is the Director of Postdoctoral Research in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Dr. Phillippi is PI on an active R01 award (2017-2022), a completed R56 award (2015-2016), and Co-I on an R01 award from NHLBI (2012-2018 and 2020-2024). Dr. Phillippi is a member of the American Heart Association and of the Executive Council for the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology (2016-2018).  Dr. Phillippi is an Associate Editor with Science Advances, of the Science family of Journals with AAAS (2014-present) and a reviewer for the journals Stem Cells, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Acta Biomaterialia, Cardiovascular Research, Journal of Biomechanics, Journal of Clinical Investigation-Insight, and several others. She currently serves on the Executive Committee for the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (2018-present). Dr. Phillippi’s research is focused on microvascular dysfunction in cardiovascular disease, the role of perivascular progenitor cells, adventitial biology/biomechanics and vasa vasorum function in aortic disease, cellular mechanisms inciting thoracic aortic aneurysm, vascular/microvascular matrix remodeling, and tissue-engineered models of aortic disease. View a list of Dr. Phillippi’s publications here.