Erica Carrier, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine with the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Guilford College and went on to receive her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a fellowship from the same institution.
Dr. Carrier’s research focuses on the consequences of thromboxane-prostanoid (TP) receptor activation, specifically in: right ventricular adaptation to the pressure overload of pulmonary hypertension; progressive cardiomyopathies such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and pulmonary fibrosis.
Fundamental goals of Dr. Carrier’s work are to better understand how elevated oxidative stress can contribute to pathology via TP receptor activation, the interplay between fibrosis and cardiomyopathy, and how cardiac adaptation devolves into cardiac disease. Her research has led to clinical trials of a TP receptor antagonist as oral therapy against cardiomyopathy in pulmonary arterial hypertension and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.