Sudarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD
Cardiologist
My Locations
About Me
I take care of patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH). I also research signaling pathways that are altered in the development of PH in rodent models of the disease. PH covers a wide spectrum of diseases, from the rare pulmonary arterial hypertension (prevalence of 15 in one million) to complications of more common heart and lung disease. PH typically leads to complications through its effects on the heart, leading to heart failure. At the Duke Center for Pulmonary Vascular Disease we see a number of patients with PH and offer all available therapies, including continuous intravenous infusion, inhaled therapies, and surgical options.
- Associate Professor of Medicine, Medicine, Cardiology 2023
- Associate Professor in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Pharmacology & Cancer Biology 2025
- Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biochemistry 2023
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The ratings and reviews are based on patient responses to the overall provider rating question from the survey. The question reads: “Using any number from 0 to 10, where 0 is the worst provider possible and 10 is the best provider possible, what number would you use to rate this provider?” Responses are converted to a 5-point rating system and applied consistently to all providers. Learn more about our survey process. Patients who see some types of providers receive a different version of the patient satisfaction survey. Those results are not available on DukeHealth.org.
Training and Education
Clinical Focus and Research
My research is on receptor signaling in pulmonary hypertension (PH). There are a number of receptor abnormalities in PH, and I am interested in how these receptors signal to their downstream targets. This understanding could lead to the development of new drugs for treating PH.
- Engineering a New Class of Therapies for Heart Failure awarded by American Heart Association 2025 - 2030
- GMS-PH-401 Pro00116519 awarded by United Therapeutics Corporation 2025 - 2029
- Liu, Samuel, Preston J. Anderson, Sudarshan Rajagopal, Robert J. Lefkowitz, and Howard A. Rockman. “G Protein-Coupled Receptors: A Century of Research and Discovery.” Circ Res 135, no. 1 (June 21, 2024): 174–97. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.124.323067.
- Gardner, Julia, Dylan Scott Eiger, Chloe Hicks, Issac Choi, Uyen Pham, Anand Chundi, Ojas Namjoshi, and Sudarshan Rajagopal. “GPCR kinases differentially modulate biased signaling downstream of CXCR3 depending on their subcellular localization.” Science Signaling 17, no. 823 (February 2024): eadd9139. https://doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.add9139.
- Rajagopal, Sudarshan, and Yen-Rei Yu. “Determining the Architecture of Inflammation in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.” Am J Respir Crit Care Med 209, no. 2 (January 15, 2024): 131–33. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202310-1987ED.
- Zheng, K., A. Kibrom, G. Viswanathan, and S. Rajagopal. “Arrestin-mediated signaling at GPCRs.” In GPCRs: Structure, Function, and Drug Discovery, 243–55, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816228-6.00012-X.
- Chundi, Anand, Uyen Pham, and Sudarshan Rajagopal. “Location Biased G Protein-Coupled Receptor Signaling Modulates Distinct Spatial Conformations of β-arrestins.” In The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 385:559–559. Elsevier BV, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.122.531270.
- Kusner, Jonathan, Jordan Awerbach, J. D. Serfas, Kishan S. Parikh, Terry Fortin, Sudarshan Rajagopal, and Richard A. Krasuski. “PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE OUTPATIENT VASODILATOR ASSESSMENT USING ILOPROST IN PULMONARY HYPERTENSION (OVATION) STUDY (NCT03044314).” In JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY, 81:1923–1923, 2023.
- Bier, Elianna A., Fawaz Alenezi, Junlan Lu, Ziyi Wang, Joseph G. Mammarappallil, Bryan O’Sullivan-Murphy, Alaattin Erkanli, Bastiaan Driehuys, and Sudarshan Rajagopal. “Noninvasive diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension with hyperpolarised 129Xe magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy.” In ERJ Open Res, Vol. 8, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00035-2022.
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*Duke HomeCare and Hospice and mental health providers do not participate with the plan.
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**Duke Health does not participate in UHC plans on the Health Insurance Marketplace.
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External Relationships
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- Liquidia Technologies, Inc
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- United Therapeutics Corp.
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