Project Title: Resistance Exercise in the Prevention and Treatment of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF)
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution: University of Minnesota
Funding NIH Institution/Center: National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
Grant ID: K99HL173668
DJ McDonough was born and raised in the San Francisco, Bay Area. Growing up in low-income, government-funded housing with limited access to safe physical activity opportunities, his family has a long history of chronic disease morbidity and mortality. This sparked Dr. McDonough’s interest and determination to develop novel, accessible behavioral interventions to prevent and treat lifestyle-related chronic diseases (e.g., type 2 diabetes, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction [HFpEF], metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease [MASLD]). The first person in his family to graduate from high school and attend college, Dr. McDonough earned his BS in Exercise Science (Alabama State University), MS in Exercise Physiology (Boise State University), and PhD in Physical Activity Epidemiology (University of Minnesota [UMN]). He also completed a 3-year NIH/NHLBI T32 postdoctoral research fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention at the UMN. Melding his previous training, his K99/R00 research aims to leverage resistance exercise to target the extracardiac contributors to exercise intolerance (deranged skeletal muscle energetics, ectopic adipose depots) in HFpEF – now the dominant heart failure subtype and a leading cause of death globally given the increasing burdens of physical inactivity and obesity. A current NIH/NHLBI Loan Repayment Program (LRP) Awardee and Ambassador, Dr. McDonough presents the LRP and other funding opportunities (e.g., NIH diversity supplements) to inner-city high schools to show youth from disadvantaged backgrounds that pursuing higher education in the biomedical sciences is possible. Dr. McDonough also helped reestablish the UMN chapter of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) following the COVID-19 pandemic.