Evan DeVallance, PhD, MS

Assistant Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Human Performance - Exercise Physiology

Classification:

Faculty

Assistant Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Physiology, Pharmacology & Toxicology

Classification:

Faculty

• PhD, West Virginia University, 2017
• MS, West Virginia University, 2013
• BA, Purdue University, 2009

Dr. DeVallance received a BA in health and fitness from Purdue University where he served as an undergraduate Intern Strength and Conditioning Coach. After working as the strength coach and assist football coach at Owen Valley High School in Spencer, IN, he enrolled in the WVU Exercise Physiology Clinical Master’s program in (2010). Evan then completed his PhD in the Biomedical program here at WVU funded by a STEM Mountains of Excellence Scholarship and an American Heart Association Predoctoral fellowship. He was then awarded the T32 post-doctoral training grant in the Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. His work on redox signaling in pulmonary hypertension was awarded a F32 training grant from NHLBI. In 2023, Evan started as a Research Assistance Professor in the Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Toxicology at WVU. During this time, he received the American Heart Association Career Transition Award and WVCTSI Research Scholar Award. In 2026 he was awarded an R01 from NHLBI and transitioned to Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Performance.

Undergraduate Program Affiliation : Pathophysiology; and Graduate Program Affiliations: Cellular and Integrative Physiology

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are generated by numerous salutary and pathobiological processes. They can produce a number of cellular responses triggered by tightly controlled redox signaling mechanisms, via modifications of reactive cysteines. However, there is a significant gap in knowledge regarding how redox signaling regulations chromatin structure and epigenetics. The focus of my laboratory is to understand how specific triggers and sources of oxidants lead to redox-mediated changes in cellular epigenetics. This basic cellular process is likely to function in most cells while specific pathways may provide novel therapeutic targets in disease states.

AHA 23CDA1038976

U54GM104942

R01HL185387

Projects

1.)  Uncovering A novel redox-mediated epigenetic pathway in the aging vasculature.

2.)  Defining a redox-mediated epigenetic priming of vascular inflammation.

3.)  Histone methylation and cellular homeostasis

4.)  LncRNA and cardiovascular function

5.)  Epigenetic regulation in metabolic diseases

6.)  Epigenetic mediators of cancer-cardiovascular pathologies

7.)  Vascular epigenetics and dementia