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If you had asked Dr. Eylem Levelt in 2022 if she would be where she is today—a Professor of Cardiology with international recognition for her work—she likely would have said no. Dr. Levelt hoped to become a Full Professor eventually, but in 2022, she was uncertain when or if that opportunity would arise. Then, at a conference in the United States, a colleague suggested she apply for the Women As One Escalator Awards.

“Okay,” she thought, “I’ll go for it.”

She received the 2022 Research Award for her project examining the link between obesity and common pregnancy complications, such as gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. As a cardiovascular imager, Dr. Levelt uses tools like MRI and echocardiograms to study how diabetes affects the heart. With her Escalator Award, she saw an opportunity to apply these modalities to better understand how pregnancy complications impact heart health in pregnant women.

“The effects of gestational diabetes and preeclampsia on heart health in pregnant women are not well studied,” Dr. Levelt explained. “However, it is known that women who develop these complications are at a higher risk of future heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction.”

Dr. Levelt’s blood pressure and metabolic control in pregnancy study (otherwise known as Project BUMP) scanned 100 pregnant women, examining various measurements of heart function and structural integrity, including ejection fraction, left ventricle thickness, myocardial energetics, and tissue characteristics.

While no massive changes were observed, early abnormalities were detected, including lower overall energy levels and slight left ventricle thickening. Noting that most of the research cohort was overweight or obese, the Project BUMP team wondered whether pregnancy or obesity was the underlying cause of these abnormalities.

The team conducted repeat testing a year after the initial study and found no change in the detected abnormalities. Additionally, these abnormalities were identical to those in women who had never been pregnant but were similarly overweight.

The results of Project BUMP were published in the Diabetes Care journal, and her team has now presented their findings at multiple international conferences. Ultimately, the project brought positive recognition to Dr. Levelt and her home institution at the University of Leeds and served towards her promotion from Associate to Full Professor.

“This research has offered the opportunity to raise my international profile and provided multiple networking opportunities that opened doors to new opportunities” Dr. Levelt shared. These include her upcoming role as Head of Cardiometabolic Imaging at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.

Dr. Levelt acknowledges that she would not have had these opportunities so quickly without the Escalator Award from Women As One. Future aims include her continued efforts to significantly impact patient lives by training in clinical trial leadership and leading large, multi-center international trials.

When asked what advice she would give to women looking to follow in her footsteps, she quotes her mentor, Prof. Barbara Casadei: “The most important quality in academic medicine is resilience.”

“Life is similarly difficult for all of us,” she adds, “but resiliency really makes a difference.”