LSU BAE Professor Receives American Heart Association Rapid Impact Research Award

BATON ROUGE, LA — LSU Biological and Agricultural Engineering Assistant Professor Debnath Maji has received a Rapid Impact Research Award from the American Heart Association to investigate why people with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome may face an increased risk of harmful blood clot formation.

Cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, or CKM syndrome, describes the closely connected effects of cardiovascular disease, kidney dysfunction, diabetes, obesity, and related metabolic disorders. These conditions frequently occur together and can substantially increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other thrombotic complications.

Maji's project is examining whether disease-associated metabolic changes shift blood toward a prothrombotic state before those changes are detected by conventional coagulation tests. The study focuses in particular on uremic toxins and other circulating compounds that may accumulate as kidney and metabolic function decline.

"Patients with cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic disease often have a higher risk of thrombosis, but the biological changes driving that risk are complex and are not always visible using standard clinical assays," Maji said. "Our goal is to identify early, measurable changes in whole-blood clotting behavior that could help explain how CKM syndrome promotes a prothrombotic state."

The research team is studying compounds associated with CKM syndrome, including indoxyl sulfate, p-cresyl sulfate, and uric acid. These molecules have been linked to vascular dysfunction, inflammation, platelet activation, and cardiovascular complications, but their combined effects on whole-blood clot formation remain incompletely understood.

To investigate these effects, Maji's team is using a low-volume microfluidic dielectric sensing platform that continuously measures changes in the electrical properties of blood as a clot forms. Unlike conventional tests that may report a single clotting time or endpoint, the platform is designed to capture the full trajectory of clot development, including the onset, rate, and extent of clot formation.

"We are interested not simply in whether blood clots, but in whether CKM-associated factors change how quickly clotting begins, how strongly the clot develops, and which components of the coagulation process are altered," Maji said. "These electrical trajectories may provide a more sensitive fingerprint of early thrombotic risk."

The electrical measurements are being compared with established laboratory methods for evaluating thrombin generation, fibrin formation, and platelet-related activity. These comparisons will help determine whether the sensor can distinguish different mechanisms through which CKM-associated compounds increase clotting risk.

Maji leads the Emerging Diagnostics and Innovative Therapeutics, or EDIT, Lab at LSU. His research combines microfluidics, electrical sensing, and biomedical engineering to develop low-volume tools for studying blood coagulation and thrombotic disease.

The project could provide new insight into how cardiovascular, kidney, and metabolic dysfunction interact to increase thrombosis risk. It may also establish the foundation for future testing approaches that use small blood samples to identify early prothrombotic changes and support more individualized assessment of patients with CKM syndrome.

The American Heart Association Rapid Impact Research Award supports research intended to accelerate progress toward addressing important cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health challenges.

Maji joined the LSU Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in 2024. His research interests include bioelectrical sensing, microfluidic diagnostics, whole-blood coagulation analysis, and technologies for assessing thrombotic risk.

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