Research: My MSc thesis focuses on the heart and blood vessels as interconnected systems, a relationship known as ventricular-arterial coupling (VAC). Through protocols such as stress echocardiography and applanation tonometry, I aim to identify methods that are more sensitive to detecting changes in cardiac and vascular function under physiological stressors, including exercise and orthostatic stress, with potential relevance for tracking disease progression in heart failure and other cardiovascular conditions. My work has also characterized venous and arterial responses of the lower limbs during lower body negative pressure. I am further interested in how cardiac output aligns, or fails to align, with the peripheral demands of thermoregulation and tissue perfusion.
Funding: NSERC USRA, NSERC CGS-M, MSFSS, President’s Graduate Scholarship
Bio: I grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Markham ON in 2017. I completed a BSc in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Medical Physiology at the University of Waterloo. If I'm not in the lab, I can probably be found travelling the world with my camera, curled up at home with my cats and a good book, or running the trails of Waterloo Park and Laurel Creek.
Email: skye.ling@uwaterloo.ca