Alan Dardik, MD/PhD, FACS, DFSVS, FAHA
Cards
About
Titles
Professor of Surgery (Vascular) and of Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Chief of Surgery, VA Connecticut; Principal Investigator, Dardik Laboratory; Editor-in-Chief, JVS-Vascular Science; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global HealthBiography
Dr. Alan Dardik is a surgeon-scientist who harnesses the power of molecular biology to achieve a modern understanding of vascular disease, and then use the basic science laboratory to ultimately benefit patients with vascular diseases.
Dr. Dardik trained at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital before his appointment to the Yale faculty in 2001. Dr. Dardik focuses his clinical practice on teaching at the VA Connecticut, where he was formerly the Chief of Vascular Surgery and currently serves as the Chief of Surgery. Dr. Dardik has won the C. Elton Cahow Award for Outstanding Faculty Teaching from Yale’s Department of Surgery and the Faculty Teaching Award from St. Mary’s Hospital. Dr. Dardik has served Yale’s Department of Surgery as a Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs, as well as Interim Division Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery.
The Dardik laboratory studies the healing and function of blood vessels, fistulae and vessel patches that are used in patients having vascular surgery. The laboratory is trying to understand the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which vein graft adaptation and arteriovenous fistula maturation result in positive remodeling and successful adaptation to the arterial environment, yet often proceed, in the long-term, to neointimal hyperplasia and failure. The laboratory also studies novel methods to deliver stem cells to diabetic wounds. The laboratory is funded from the NIH as well as Yale's Department of Surgery.
Dr. Dardik currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the translational science journal JVS-Vascular Science; he is the past President of the New England Society for Vascular Surgery, the Association of VA Surgeons as well as of the International Society for Vascular Surgery. Dr. Dardik has run several national and international meetings, including the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Research Initiatives Conference, and has served on numerous peer review committees including review for the NIH, the VA, and Vascular Cures. Dr. Dardik has edited several textbooks including “Vascular Surgery: A Global Perspective” and “Stem cell therapy for vascular diseases.”
Appointments
Vascular Surgery & Endovascular Therapy
ProfessorPrimaryCellular & Molecular Physiology
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
Education & Training
- Fellow
- Vascular Surgery; The Johns Hopkins Hospital (2001)
- Chief Resident
- General Surgery; The Johns Hopkins Hospital (2000)
- Resident
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital (1999)
- Specialist Registrar
- The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England (1999)
- Postdoctoral Fellow (NIH F32)
- Johns Hopkins University (1997)
- MD/PhD
- University of Pennsylvania (1993)
- BS
- Yale University, Computer Science (1986)
Research
Overview
The Dardik laboratory uses modern molecular techniques to study the diseases and therapeutics that vascular surgeons care for in their patients. As part of Yale’s Vascular Biology and Therapeutics program, we take advantage of our rich collaborative environment to push our field forward, focusing on basic and translational research that is relevant to our patients.
A major focus of our laboratory is to understand the healing and function of blood vessels and synthetic blood vessel substitutes and patches that are used in vascular reconstruction. We are currently trying to understand the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which vein graft adaptation and arteriovenous fistula maturation result in positive remodeling and successful adaptation to the arterial and fistula environments, yet often proceed, in the long-term, to neointimal hyperplasia and graft failure. We are focusing on the role of vascular identity in controlling the response to vascular intervention; the laboratory made the original observation that vein graft adaptation is associated with diminished Eph-B4 expression without increased Ephrin-B2 expression, e.g. vein grafts lose venous identity without gaining arterial identity (Kudo et al., ATVB 27:1562, 2007; Muto et al., J Exp Med 208:561, 2011). However, arteriovenous fistula maturation is characterized by retention of venous identity with gain of arterial identity (Protack et al., Sci Rep 7:15386, 2017). We are currently exploring downstream mechanisms by which vessel identity regulates vessel remodeling and the success or failure of vascular therapeutics (Sadaghianloo et al., Ann Vasc Surg 41:225, 2017) as well as the role of the extracellular matrix in controlling vascular remodeling (Kuwahara et al., ATVB 37:1147, 2017). This work has led to the new RADAR procedure that shows improved outcomes compared to the conventional radial-cephalic AV fistula (Bai & Sadaghianloo et al., Science Transl Med 12(557):eaax7613, 2020). We have recently shown the importance of the immune system in venous remodeling during AVF maturation (Matsubara et al, ATVB 41:e160, 2021) including the presence of a PD-L1 mechanism (Matsubara et al, ATVB epub Oct 21, 2021).
Studying mechanisms of vascular remodeling has also led us to examination of vascular patch remodeling, including demonstration that patches heal by infiltration of vascular stem cells according to their environment (Li et al., PLoS ONE 7:e38844, 2012; Bai et al., Physiol Rep 4:e12841, 2016; Bai et al., J Biomed Mater Res A 105:3422, 2017). This work led to the first description of a mechanism of pseudoaneurysm formation after patch angioplasty (Bai et al., ATVB epub Nov 16 2017) as well as description of a novel drug delivery system (Bai et al., Sci Rep 7:40142, 2017). We also study remodeling of tissue engineered vascular grafts using both in vivo and in vitro models.
Selected Awards for Dardik Laboratory Trainees:
- 2003 Jacek Paszkowiak: Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, 1st place prize for best talk
- 2004 Desarom Teso: Society for Clinical Vascular Surgery, Allastair Karmody Award
- 2006 Tamara Fitzgerald: Ohse award, Dept. of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
- 2006 Tamara Fitzgerald: NIH F32 Research Fellowship Award
- 2007 Dania Magri: Doris Duke Clinical Fellowship
- 2008 Tormod Westvik: American Vascular Association, Lifeline Resident Research Prize
- 2009 Amanda Feigel: American College of Surgeons, Surgical Forum Excellence in Research Award
- 2009 Lynn Model: NIH T32 Research Fellowship Award
- 2011 Clay Quint: American Vascular Association, Lifeline Resident Research Prize
- 2011 Caroline Jadlowiec: American College of Surgeons, Surgical Forum Excellence in Research Award
- 2011 Sammy Eghbalieh: Society for Vascular Surgery Basic Science Poster competition winner
- 2011 Lynn Model: Research Resident of the Year award, Dept. of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
- 2011 Clinton Protack: Ohse award, Dept. of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine
- 2012 Robert Brenes: Society for Vascular Surgery Foundation, Resident Research Prize
- 2012 Michael Collins: Association of VA Surgeons, 1st place Basic Science Presentation
- 2015 Jeans Santana: Sarnoff Fellowship, Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation
- 2016 Trenton Foster: Society for Vascular Surgery Foundation, Resident Research Prize
- 2016 Tambudzai Kudze: HHMI Medical Student Research Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- 2017 Jeans Santana: the Association of VA Surgeons, Lloyd S Rogers award
- 2017 Katharine Wolf: Sarnoff Fellowship, Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation
- 2018 Jolanta Gorecka: Association of VA Surgeons Resident Research Award
- 2018 Arash Fereydooni: HHMI Medical Student Research Fellowship, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- 2018 Shin Rong Lee: NIH T32 Research Fellowship Award
- 2018 Shirley Liu: NIH T32 Research Fellowship Award
- 2019 Jolanta Gorecka: Association of VA Surgeons Resident Research Award
- 2019 John Langford: NIH T32 Research Fellowship Award
- 2020 Luis Gonzalez: NIH F30 Predoctoral NRSA Fellowship
- 2021 Anand Brahmandam: American College of Surgeons, Surgical Forum Excellence in Research Award
- 2022 Keyuree Satam: Association of VA Surgeons, Best Basic Science Presentation
- 2023 Carly Thaxton: NIH Extramural Clinical Loan Repayment Scholarship
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Academic Achievements and Community Involvement
Clinical Care
Overview
Alan Dardik, MD, PhD, specializes in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery. His clinical practice focuses on teaching at VA Connecticut Healthcare System, where he is the Chief of Surgery. Dr. Dardik also serves as the Principal Investigator of the Dardik Laboratory, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of JVS-Vascular Science (www.jvsvs.org), the premier journal for translational vascular science.
In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Dardik's research interests include surgeon-scientist workforce diversity and career development, and the cellular and immunological mechanisms that impact vascular disease as well as the long-term efficacy of vascular therapies. His research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, explores the mechanisms by which blood vessels adapt to therapeutic procedures and by which vascular procedures fail, thus identifying novel strategies to promote success and improved outcomes after surgery and minimally invasive procedures.
Dr. Dardik is a Professor of Surgery and of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine.
Clinical Specialties
Fact Sheets
Vascular Surgery
Learn More on Yale Medicine
Links & Media
Media
Dardik lab celebrates Luis Gonzalez PhD defense Jan 2023
Dardik lab celebrates Luis Gonzalez PhD defense Jan 2023
Dardik lab lunch, summer 2022
Dardik lab celebrates successful Ph.D. defense by Dr. Weichang ZhangDardik lab lunch at Mory's, summer 2021
Dardik lab lunch at Mory's, summer 2021Dardik lab congratulations Jia Liu at the end of her research program, Sept 2020
Dardik lab congratulations Jia Liu at the end of her research program, Sept 2020Dardik lab congratulates Jianbio Xu at the end of his research year, July 2019
Dardik lab congratulates Jianbio Xu at the end of his research year, July 2019Dardik lab congratulates Shirley Liu, 2019
Dardik laboratory celebrates with Shirley Liu after 2 years in the lab, June 2019Dardik lab at Yale's British Art Center, practicing observation, Dec 2018
Dardik laboratory takes a field trip to Yale's British Art Center to practice observation; in front of a picture of Elihu Yale, Dec 2018Dardik laboratory congratulates Lara Lopes at the end of her rotation
Dardik laboratory congratulates Lara Lopes at the end of her rotation, spring 2018Dardik laboratory celebrates the holiday season 2017
Dardik laboratory celebrates the holiday season 2017Dardik laboratory celebrates Chinese Mid-Autumn Day festival 2017
Dardik laboratory celebrates Chinese Mid-Autumn Day festival 2017
News
- February 07, 2024
Dr. Benjamin Judson Appointed Interim Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs
- January 26, 2024
Dr. Alan Dardik Appointed Chief of Surgery for the VA Connecticut
- January 12, 2024
Dr. Isibor Arhuidese Elected to Faculty Advisory Council
- November 29, 2023
Department of Surgery Chiefs Find Their Celebrity Doppelganger
Get In Touch
Contacts
Yale School of Medicine
10 Amistad Street; PO Box 208089
New Haven, CT 06520-8089
United States
Locations
Yale School of Medicine - Dardik Lab
Lab
Yale School of Medicine - Vascular Biology and Therapeutics
Academic Office
Patient Care Locations
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