Faculty & Staff
John J. Pacella, MS, MD
Professor of Medicine, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
Education
BSE, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990
MSE, Mechanical Engineering, Lehigh University, 1992
MD, University of Pittsburgh, 1998
Board Certification in Internal Medicine (2001), Cardiovascular Disease (2004), and Interventional Cardiology (2006)
Research Interests
After completing his medical schooling at the University of Pittsburgh in 1998, Dr. Pacella began working as a resident physician in Internal Medicine at UPMC until 2000. Here, he went on to complete his fellowships in Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Cardiology, and now works as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at UPMC specializing in Interventional Cardiology. Some of Dr. Pacella’s current research interests include the effect of drag-reducing polymers on myocardial perfusion in acute coronary syndromes (in collaboration with Dr. Marina Kameneva of the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine) and mechanisms of improving coronary flow reserve through modulations of capillary resistance. More recently, he has been studying microembolization and no reflow, which occurs during coronary stenting. This process involves the iatrogenic release of atherosclerotic debris from the vessel wall downstream into the microcirculation. He is investigating the microvascular mechanisms of microbubble facilitated sonothrombolysis (in collaboration with Drs. Flordeliza Villanuava and Xucai Chen), using both in vitro and in vivo models . This involves the application of ultrasound to activate microbubbles that resonate in the vicinity of blood clot to cause mechanical disruption and clot lysis.