Yin Tintut

Dr. Yin Tintut is an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. She also serves as Director of the Physiology Teaching Laboratory and Safety Officer in the Department of Physiology. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from UCLA in 1995. Her research focuses on mechanisms linking inflammation to biomineralization in arterial walls, aortic valves, and bone, using in vitro and in vivo models.

Dr. Tintut has held multiple NIH-funded roles as Co-Principal Investigator, including studies on exercise-induced vascular calcification, serotonin receptor contributions to aortic valve disease, and aging’s role in calcific vasculopathy. Her work integrates molecular biology, imaging, and biomechanics to understand calcification processes in cardiovascular diseases.

Her research has produced over 200 publications in high-impact journals such as Circulation, Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, and Nature Reviews Cardiology, with a focus on vascular calcification, lipid metabolism, and bone-vascular interactions. She collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to advance imaging techniques and computational models for studying calcification progression.

Dr. Tintut’s lab investigates lipid oxidation products, mechanical forces, and signaling pathways in calcification. Key projects include studying the impact of exercise on calcification morphology and the role of nanocrystals in smooth muscle cells. She has pioneered protocols for longitudinal PET/CT imaging to assess calcification dynamics in animal models.