Natalia Alexandrova Trayanova, MS, PhD
Highlights
Languages
- English
Gender
FemaleJohns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Natalia Alexandrova Trayanova
Professional Titles
- Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine
- Director, Alliance for Cardiovascular Diagnostic and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE)
- Director for AI Research in Health and Medicine in the Data Science and AI Institute
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. She is also the Director for AI Research in Health and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University under the Data Science and AI Institute, where she is responsible for directing efforts across the university in developing and deploying AI applications that advance healthcare delivery and improve patient outcomes. Dr. 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 decisionmaking 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 450 scientific papers, many of them in journals of high impact. She has also given over 370 invited talks, keynotes, and plenary lectures.
For her pioneering work in computational cardiology, in 2013, Dr. Trayanova received the NIH Director's Pioneer Award. In 2019, Dr. 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 2024 Dr. Trayanova was named the recipient of the Hodgkin-Huxley-Katz Award by the Physiological Society. In recognition for her innovations, Dr. 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, International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the International Union of Physiological Sciences. Her work has been featured by a large number of news outlets, including a TEDx talk.
Centers and Institutes
Videos
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)
Additional Academic Titles
Joint Appointment in Medicine
Contact for Research Inquiries
3400 N. Charles St.
Hackerman Hall Room 216
Baltimore, MD 21218
Phone: (410) 516-4375
Research Interests
Arrhythmia therapies, Artificial Intelligence, Cardiac electrophysiology, Computational cardiology, Machine learning in cardiology, Sudden cardiac death
Lab Website
Trayanova Lab - Lab Website
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).
Selected Publications
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
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
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
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
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)
Courses & Syllabi
- Systems Bioengineering I: Cellular and Cardiovascular Engineering. Core undergraduate course in Biomedical Engineering, BME 580.421, 1/1/06
- Advanced Seminars in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Mechanics, EN.580.739, 1/1/11
Honors
- Gordon K Moe Lectureship Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 1/1/23
- Douglas Zipes Lectureship Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 1/1/22
- Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, 1/1/22
- Graeme Clark Oration, Melbourne, Australia, 1/1/22
- Fellow of European Heart Rhythm Association, 1/1/21
- Lucy G. Moses Lectureship in Medical Imaging and Bioengineering, Mount Sinai, 1/1/21
- Fellow, National Academy of Inventors, 1/1/20
- Women in STEM Champion Award, NYU School of Engineering, 1/1/20
- Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, 1/1/20
- Distinguished Scientist Award, Heart Rhythm Society, 1/1/19
- Inductee, Women in Technology International Hall of Fame, 1/1/19
- invited appearance on Reddit AMA, r/science, 1/1/18
- TEDx Talk, 1/1/17
- Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, 1/1/17
- Capitol Hill Briefing, United for Medical Research, 1/1/17
- Discovery Innovation Award, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 1/1/15
- NIH Director's Pioneer Award, NIH, 10/1/13
- Murray B Sachs Endowed Chair, Johns Hopkins University, 1/1/12
- Fellow of the American Heart Association, American Heart Association, 1/1/10
- Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, 1/1/10
Lectures & Presentations
- EHRA meeting, Invited speaker, Barcelona, Spain, 4/1/23
- Festival of Radical Health, Invited speaker, Helsinki, Finland, 6/1/23
- iHeart Symposium, Plenary Speaker, Cetraro, Italy, 9/1/22
- SSIMA meeting, Keynote Speaker, Oradea, Romania, 9/1/22
- Together VT meeting, Invited Speaker, Prague, Czech Republic, 6/1/23
- University of Amsterdam Medical Center, Grand Rounds, 2/1/23
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
- AI-X Foundry, Johns Hopkins University, Director for AI in Health and Medicine, 1/1/22
- iHEART Program, Program Committee, 1/1/19 - 1/1/22
- Johns Hopkins University, Director. Alliance for Cardiovascular and Treatment Innovation (ADVANCE), 1/1/18