Natalia A. Trayanova, Ph.D., M.S.

Headshot of Natalia A. Trayanova
  • Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine
  • Joint Appointment in Medicine

Expertise

Cardiac Electrophysiology

Research Interests

Cardiac electrophysiology; Computational cardiology; Machine learning in cardiology; Artificial Intelligence; Arrhythmia therapies; Sudden cardiac death ...read more

Background

Dr. Trayanova holds the Murray B. Sachs Professorship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She is also a Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and a Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Johns Hopkins University. She directs the Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE), a research center aimed at bringing directly into the clinic innovative engineering and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to cardiovascular health. Trayanova is the Director of Research in Health and Medicine in the AI-X Foundry, a university-wide initiative to bring AI into all aspects of research and scholarship at Johns Hopkins. Trayanova also directs the Computational Cardiology Laboratory. Using a personalized simulation and machine learning approaches, her lab has developed new methodologies for predicting risk of cardiac arrest and improving the accuracy and outcome of atrial and ventricular catheter ablation therapies. Through our first-of-their-kind personalized virtual hearts and artificial intelligence technologies, her team is working at advancing personalized medicine for patients with cardiovascular disease, to influence clinical decision-making and the delivery of patient care. She is currently conducting an FDA-approved clinical trial in simulation-driven treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. Dr. Trayanova has published over 430 scientific papers, many of them in journals of high impact. She has also given over 300 invited talks, keynotes, and plenary lectures.

For her pioneering work in computational cardiology, in 2013, Trayanova received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. In 2019, Trayanova was inducted in the Women of Technology International Hall of Fame. She has been awarded the Distinguished Scientist Award (2019); followed by the Zipes Distinguished Lectureship Award (2022) from the Heart Rhythm Society. In 2023, she was awarded the Gordon Moe lectureship by the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society. In recognition for her innovations, Trayanova was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.  She is a Fellow of all American and European cardiology societies: American College of Cardiology, American Heart Association, Heart Rhythm Society, European Society of Cardiology, and European Heart Rhythm Association. She is also a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering Society, and International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. Her work has been featured by a large number of news outlets, including a TEDx talk.

 

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Titles

  • Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine
  • Director, Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE)
  • Director of Research in Health and Medicine, AI-X Foundry
  • Joint Appointment in Medicine

Departments / Divisions

Centers & Institutes

Education

Degrees

  • Ph.D.; Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Sofia (Bulgaria) (1986)
  • M.S.; Sofia University (Bulgaria) (1982)

Research & Publications

Research Summary

Our lab conducts research in computational cardiology, developing and translating to the clinic personalized computational digital-twin technologies and machine learning approaches for the prognosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. Our models of patients’ hearts realistically represent the functioning of the diseased organ. They are used, in combination with machine learning, for the discovery of mechanistic relationships and features that are indicative of the trajectory of the patient’s heart condition. Our work focuses on the prediction of risk of adverse cardiovascular events so that patient lives can be better protected. We also design treatment interventions that are optimal for the patient’s unique heart condition, maximizing procedure success and minimizing the potential for disease recurrence and re-hospitalization.

We are part of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE).

Visit the lab website

Lab

Lab Website: Trayanova Lab

Selected Publications

View all on PubMed

Sung E, Prakosa A, Zhou S, Berger R, Chrispin J, Nazarian S, Trayanova N. Fat infiltration in the infarcted heart as a paradigm for ventricular arrhythmias. Nature Cardiovascular Research (2022)

Popescu D, Shade J, Lai C, Aronis K, Ouyang D, Moorthy MV, Cook N, Lee D, Kadisj A, Albert C, Wu K, Maggion M, Trayanova N. Arrhythmic sudden death survival prediction using deep learning analysis of scarring in the heart. Nature Cardiovascular Research, DOI : 10.1038/s44161-022-00041-9,  2022

O'Hara RP, Binka E, Prakosa A, Zimmerman SL, Cartoski MJ, Abraham MR, Lu DY, Boyle PM, Trayanova N. Personalized computational heart models with T1-mapped fibrotic remodeling predict sudden death risk in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Elife. 2022 Jan 25;11:e73325. doi: 10.7554/eLife.73325

Shade J, Prakosa A, Popescu D, Yu R, Okada D, Chrispin J, Trayanova N,Predicting Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients with Cardiac Sarcoidosis Using Multi-Modality Imaging and Personalized Heart Modeling in a Multi-Variable Classifier, Science Advances, 2021, Vol. 7, no. 31, eabi8020DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi8020

PM Boyle, T Zghaib, S Zahid, RL Ali, D Deng, WH Franceschi, J Hakim, MJ Murphy, A Prakosa, S Zimmerman, H Ashikaga, JE Marine, A Kolandaivelu, S Nazarian, D Spragg, H Calkins, Trayanova N, Computationally guided personalized targeted ablation of persistent atrial fibrillation, Nature Biomedical Engineering, doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0437-9, 2019

Contact for Research Inquiries

3400 N. Charles St.
Hackerman Hall Room 216
Baltimore, MD 21218 map
Phone: 410-516-4375

Academic Affiliations & Courses

Courses and Syllabi

  • Systems Bioengineering I: Cellular and Cardiovascular Engineering. Core undergraduate course in Biomedical Engineering (BME 580.421)
    2006
  • Advanced Seminars in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Mechanics (EN.580.739)
    2011

Activities & Honors

Honors

  • Fellow of the American Heart Association, American Heart Association, 2010
  • Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, 2010
  • Murray B Sachs Endowed Chair, Johns Hopkins University, 2012
  • NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, NIH, 2013
  • Discovery Innovation Award, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 2015 - 2016
  • TEDx Talk, 2017
  • Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, 2017
  • Capitol Hill Briefing, United for Medical Research, 2017
  • invited appearance on Reddit AMA, r/science, 2018
  • Distinguished Scientist Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 2019
  • Inductee, Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, 2019
  • Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 2020
  • Women in STEM Champion Award, NYU School of Engineering, 2020
  • Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, 2020
  • Fellow of European Heart Rhythm Association, 2021
  • Lucy G. Moses Lectureship in Medical Imaging and Bioengineering, Mount Sinai, 2021
  • Douglas Zipes Lectureship Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 2022
  • Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, 2022
  • Graeme Clark Oration, Melbourne, Australia, 2022
  • Gordon K Moe Lectureship Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 2023

Memberships

  • Fellow, American College of Cardiology
  • Fellow, European Heart Rhythm Association
  • Fellow, National Academy of Inventors
  • Fellow, European Society of Cardiology
  • Fellow, International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering
  • Fellow, Heart Rhythm Society
  • Fellow, American Heart Association
  • Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
  • Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society
  • IEEE Engineering in Biology and Medicine Society
  • International Society for Heart Research
  • International Society for Computerized Electrocardiology
  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
  • American Association for Advancement of Science
  • Cardiac Muscle Society
  • Cardiac Electrophysiology Society
  • Biophysical Society
  • New York Academy of Sciences
  • American Society for Engineering Education

Professional Activities

  • Director for AI in Health and Medicine, AI-X Foundry, Johns Hopkins University, 2022
  • Director. Alliance for Cardiovascular and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE), Johns Hopkins University, 2018
  • American Heart Association Research Committee, 2017 - 2018
  • Program Committee, iHEART Program, 2019 - 2022
  • Heart Rhythm Society Global Relations Committee, 2020

Videos & Media

Lectures and Presentations

  • Together VT meeting
    Invited Speaker, Prague, Czech Republic (06/01/2023)
  • Festival of Radical Health
    Invited speaker, Helsinki, Finland (06/01/2023)
  • EHRA meeting
    Invited speaker, Barcelona, Spain (04/01/2023)
  • University of Amsterdam Medical Center
    Grand Rounds (02/01/2023)
  • iHeart Symposium
    Plenary Speaker, Cetraro, Italy (09/01/2022)
  • SSIMA meeting
    Keynote Speaker, Oradea, Romania (09/01/2022)

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

Personalized simulations lead to more accurate, successful treatment for common heart rhythm disorder, The Hub (Aug 19, 2019)

New heart modeling method may help doctors pump the brakes on sudden cardiac death, The Hub (January 25, 2022)

AI Predicts If And When Someone Will Experience Cardiac Arrest, The Hub (April 7, 2022)

How Cardiac Arrest Can Be Predicted by New Form of Artificial Intelligence, Healthline (April 7, 2022)

This AI can prevent your death 10 years from now. So how does THAT work? Fast Company (April 14, 2022)

Artificial Intelligence Used To Predict Heart Trouble,  NBC Washington (May 2, 2022)

Updates on our latest paper in Nature Cardiovascular Research, Trayanova Lab (May 3, 2022)

Deep learning a person's risk of sudden cardiac death, The Lancet (May 21, 2022)

Researchers in the Trayanova Lab receive three Johns Hopkins Discovery Awards, Trayanova Lab (May 24, 2022)

Dr. Trayanova delivers the Graeme Clark Oration, Trayanova Lab (May 24, 2022)

Powering The Future Of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (August 30, 2022)

New Study Uncovers Major Cause Of Deadly Heart Arrhythmias, The Hub (October 6, 2022)

We are going to Heart Rhythm 2023!, Trayanova Lab (April 1, 2023)

Dr. Trayanova appointed as Director of Research in Health & Medicine at Johns Hopkins new AI-X Foundry, Trayanova Lab (April 2, 2023)

Natalia Trayanova joins $8M international research initiative for advanced heart disease diagnosis and therapeutics, Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering (June 26, 2023)

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