Anita Salamon was awarded an American Heart Association (AHA) Predoctoral Fellowship in April of 2021. Anita is a trainee in the lab of Gary K. Owens, PhD, the Director of the Cardiovascular Researcher Center (CVRC). She is co-mentored by Stefan Bekiranov, PhD, and is pursuing her training in through the Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics PhD program. Anita’s PhD research is targeted at determining how amino acid metabolism within advanced atherosclerotic lesions can be exploited to enhance atherosclerotic plaque stability, a critical defense mechanism against heart attack and stroke. Her research and interests are at the intersection between bioinformatics/computational biology and the mechanisms underlying cardiovascular disease. In her AHA per-doctoral fellowship, she proposed to target glutamine metabolism as an approach to augment atherosclerotic plaque stability. This allowed her to test the function of amino acid metabolism in cell and animal models of cardiometabolic diseases while applying computational approaches to her data. Outside of the scientific world, Anita can be found on the squash court or in the Shenandoah National park. She also enjoy listening to podcasts, playing board games and exploring all the local vineyards!