Mary Raphel Daniel: Protecting hearts beyond cancer

PhD student Mary Raphel Daniel, PharmD, has a fear of public speaking, but that didn’t stop her from becoming the Judge’s Winner and People’s Choice Winner of the College of Pharmacy’s 2025 3-Minute Thesis competition. This year’s competition was Daniel’s third time participating and each year before it, she observed how the winners presented. This year, she started practicing early and stopped paying attention to the timer running out. Her success there led to her representing the College of Pharmacy at the University-wide competition. 

“I used to hear my heartbeat more than my voice,” she said. “I was never into public speaking— I just wanted to go unnoticed. But after I moved to the U.S., everything changed. I feel my supervisor has molded me.”

Working in health care was always a childhood dream for Daniel, who earned her PharmD in India before moving to Minnesota for graduate school. Her specific research interests lie in cardiovascular-related pharmacology. When she found the college’s Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology (ECP), she saw the profile of Dr. Beshay Zordoky, an associate professor in ECP (and now her advisor), who specializes in cardio-oncology. Originally in the program as a master’s student, Daniel worked in Zordoky’s lab and was offered a PhD position there in 2023. 

The project that won Daniel the college’s 3-Minute Thesis competition, called "The Heart-Spleen Axis - A Tale of Two Organs," focuses on how chemotherapy drugs, in combination with comorbidities such as hypertension, affect the heart. Specifically, her research examines doxorubicin, a potent, widely-used chemotherapy drug that is effective against several types of cancer but known to cause cardiac complications later in life. By studying the mechanisms underlying doxorubicin-related cardiac injury, Daniel aims to identify therapeutic targets that could be blocked to protect the heart. Her work also considers psychosocial stress as an additional cardiovascular risk factor, such as mental health challenges and financial instability commonly associated with a cancer diagnosis, and investigates how these stressors interact with doxorubicin to further influence cardiac health.

“What we observed in our research was when high blood pressure was introduced in our mouse models, the spleen responded by contracting and releasing immune cells into circulation,” Daniel explained. “These immune cells then traveled to the heart, where instead of promoting repair, they contributed to inflammation and cardiac damage.” 

The heart-spleen axis concept isn’t new to the research world, but Daniel and those in her lab are fixated on doxorubicin in particular. Her research has been recognized at multiple presentations, such as the Clinical and Translational Science Institute Advanced Pathways to Research Program Symposium, Masonic Cancer Center Flash Talk Competition, and International Society for Heart Research Early Career Investigator Competition. Immune cells normally play a protective role, but under certain conditions the heart–spleen communication becomes maladaptive, an interaction that highlights how immune and blood flow signals between the two organs can influence disease progression, she said. Her lab also collaborates with researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School and the College of Biological Sciences who provide expertise on immunology. 

“We are not only [concerned with] curing patients from cancer— how is their life after cancer? They’re still seeing side effects and adverse effects of the drugs,” Daniel said. “I don't want to see people get heart or organ-related problems and suffer again after beating such a dangerous disease. I want their lives to be happy after they’re cured from cancer.”

While she’s got her eye on any cardiology-specific opportunities in her future, Daniel’s life as a PhD student in Minnesota has opened up her interests to several specialties. Transitioning from a master’s to a PhD was the biggest decision she had to make in her life, Daniel said, and her experiences in the program have completely changed her perspective.  

“It's all about how resilient you are, how you learn from your mistakes— be persistent and consistent with whatever you are doing. There are some days you don't feel good about your work, but I'm glad that I'm in a good lab environment,” Daniel said. “To me, a good scientist is not just about winning awards or being successful in research but also having failures so that you become mentally stronger and explore more opportunities.”