Dr. Ulhas P. Naik received his Ph.D degree in Microbiology from the University of Bombay in 1986. In 1998, Dr. Naik joined the University of Delaware as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. In 2007, he was promoted to the rank of full Professor. Since 2009, Dr. Naik has been appointed as the founding Director of the Delaware Cardiovascular Research Center. He has received numerous awards including the American Heart Association’s Ella Fitzgerald Research Fellowship in 1990, AHA Young Investigator Prize in 1996, Mario Toppo, Distinguished Scientist Award and the Juan Villamarin Mentor of the Year Award in 2008. Dr. Naik served on the editorial board of Blood and is a currently on the editorial board of Frontiers in Bioscience, The Open Atherosclerosis and Thrombosis Journal, and is a Journal Club member of Cell Adhesion and Migration. He is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Cell Signaling and trafficking. He has received research funding from the American Heart Association, National Institute of Health, and National Science Foundation. Dr. Naik served as grant review committee member of AHA, NIH, NSF, DOD, VA, Army, Welcome Trust, and Ireland Medical Research Foundation. His major research interest is in understanding the role of cell adhesion molecules in regulating cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Particularly, he is interested in signal transduction pathways regulated by integrins and junctional adhesion molecules.