Fifteen Research Teams Selected for 2026 Single Ventricle Research Fund Award
July 1, 2026
Fifteen research teams — including twelve independent investigators and three postdoctoral investigators — have been awarded through the 2026 Single Ventricle Research Fund (SVRF) and are advancing the next generation of discovery in single ventricle heart disease.
This year’s awardees reflect an important evolution in the field. While advances in surgery have transformed survival, many patients continue to experience complications affecting the liver, brain, vasculature, lymphatic system, immune system, and other organs. Increasingly, researchers recognize that single ventricle heart disease is not simply a structural heart defect, but a lifelong, multi-organ disease.
The 2026 SVRF portfolio embraces this reality. Funded projects investigate how abnormal blood flow drives Fontan-associated liver disease, how placental function influences outcomes before birth, how fibrosis and remodeling contribute to heart failure, how inflammation affects cardiac rhythm and organ function, and how advanced computational and bioengineered systems can reveal disease mechanisms that have remained inaccessible through traditional approaches.
Together, these projects align closely with Additional Ventures’ Research Roadmap and reflect a broader shift from describing complications to understanding the mechanisms that drive them. Several projects form a coordinated effort to understand Fontan-associated liver disease, spanning hemodynamics, immune biology, tissue engineering, and multi-organ modeling. Others focus on the earliest determinants of health, seeking to understand how risk emerges during fetal development, surgery, and critical periods of neurologic development.
The portfolio also highlights the growing role of technologies such as artificial intelligence, organ-on-chip systems, bioprinting, advanced imaging, patient-derived cellular models, and computational physiology. These tools are enabling investigators to ask and answer questions that were previously beyond reach.
Taken together, the 2026 SVRF cohort represents more than a collection of research projects. It is an investment in a future where disease progression can be anticipated before complications arise, where therapies target underlying biology rather than symptoms, and where people living with single ventricle heart disease benefit from a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that shape lifelong outcomes.
About the Single Ventricle Research Fund
SVRF is Additional Ventures’ flagship research award program, shaping the future of care for people with single ventricle heart disease and advancing hypothesis-driven research that explores the mechanisms behind the most pressing complications of single ventricle circulation. With 95+ multi-year awards granted and nearly $58M invested, SVRF has supported foundational research focused on understanding the organ- and multi-organ-level mechanisms that drive long-term morbidity and mortality in single ventricle heart disease.
Learn more about the SVRF Independent Investigator and Career Development tracks, and all of Additional Ventures’ research award programs.
2026 SVRF Award Recipients
| Primary Investigator | Project Title | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| Independent Investigator Track | ||
| Daniel Shiwarski, PhD | Advancing Fontan Patient Longevity Through Mechanistic Insights into Liver Dysfunction and Thrombosis Using 3D Bioprinted Model Systems | University of Pittsburgh |
| Vidya Rajagopalan, PhD | Deciphering Placental Impact on Neonatal Outcomes in Single Ventricle Heart Disease: An Integrated MRI and Biomolecular Approach | Children’s Hospital Los Angeles |
| Anastacia Garcia, PhD | From Cellular Signature to Novel Therapeutics: A High-Throughput Screening Approach for Single Ventricle Fibroblast Activation and Expansion | University of Colorado Denver, AMC and DC |
| Vahid Serpooshan, PhD | Immune-Integrated 3D Bioprinted Models of Fontan-Associated Liver Disease for Mechanistic Discovery and Therapy Development | Emory University |
| David Sachs, PhD | A Cardio-Hepatic Micro-Organ Model of Fontan-Associated Liver Disease | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| Jennifer Lynch, MD, PhD | Advanced Neuromonitoring to Improve Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Neonates with Single Ventricle Heart Disease | Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia |
| Andrew McCulloch, PhD | Predicting Cardiac Remodeling and Heart Failure in Single Ventricle Patients | The Regents of the University of California, San Diego |
| Ellen Roche, PhD | Understanding How Hemodynamics Impact Fontan-Associated Liver Disease Through Computational and Liver-on-Chip Modeling | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Hee Cheol Cho, PhD | The Fontan Environmental Triad: Linking Systemic Inflammation to Sinus Node Dysfunction via a Patient-Calibrated Organoid Platform | Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine |
| Bryan Good, PhD | The Impact of Fontan Patient-Specific Hemodynamics on Biomarkers of Endothelial Function | University of Tennessee Knoxville |
| Alison Marsden, PhD | Model-Guided Clinical Decision Support for Fontan Conduit Upsizing | The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University |
| Sophie Astrof, PhD | Toward Deciphering the Etiology of Systemic Lymphatic Defects in Congenital Heart Disease | Rutgers New Jersey Medical School |
| Career Development Track | ||
| Ryan O’Hara, PhD | Quantifying Biomechanical Inefficiency for Personalized Pre-Fontan Risk Assessment in Single-Ventricle Heart Disease | Children’s National Medical Center and Children’s Research Institute |
| Shaoyan Zhang, PhD | Decoupling Genetic and Hemodynamic Etiologies of Fontan-Associated Liver Disease | Stanford University School of Medicine |
| Dominic Rütsche, PhD | Lineage-Resolved HLHS Mechanisms via Transcription Factor-Programmable Human Myocardial Organoids | Stanford University School of Medicine |