When the Sphynx cat he rescued and bonded deeply with died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, Amos Cader was devastated and determined to put his grief toward making sure no one else experienced the pain he felt over the loss of Vladimir.

The NC State College of Veterinary Medicine is the hope he found.

With a Feline Health Center dedicated entirely to improving cat care, an annual Feline Health Symposium for veterinarians and cat lovers, a new Cat Camp to spark feline interest in veterinary residents, a dean whose speciality is feline cardiology and an associate dean of research, Dr. Joshua Stern, whose lab’s research led to the FDA’s conditional approval of the first drug to treat feline HCM, NC State is a leader in all things feline.

Once he learned of Vlad’s condition, Cader researched what therapeutic treatments were available and was shocked to find nothing approved. 

“I spoke to people in human medicine, which led me back to where the most research was being done on the feline side of it, which led me here,” he said. “Dr. Stern and I, by sheer coincidence, had been looking at rapamycin compounds for this.”

Early last year, Stern and his team, with funding from TriviumVet, announced that their controlled studies had found that a targeted formulation of rapamycin could slow down or reverse the key disease feature of HCM.

“His gift is transformational because it lives on in perpetuity and generates funds each year for us to continue working to improve the lives of cats with heart disease,” Dr. Joshua Stern said.

Initially, Cader emailed Stern to ask questions about his rapamycin research. Those email exchanges about a year and a half ago led Stern to ask whether they should talk by phone, and then the phone calls led to a campus visit.

Now, Cader has taken his desire to decrease HCM risks for all cats and endowed the Vladimir Cader Feline Health Research Distinguished Chair at NC State, with Stern as the first recipient. The position will focus on promoting groundbreaking translational research to find answers to diseases like HCM in cats.

“Amos is dedicated to making forward motion in the fight against HCM, and we found great common ground on that front,” Stern said. “He was very direct about asking questions about what he could do and how he could make a meaningful difference in the quest to protect his own new cats and keep others from suffering with this terrible disease. Amos has been wildly generous in his support of our work and trainees working toward a cure for feline HCM.”

Upping the Momentum

In their New York City home, Cader and his wife, Anna, now have two other Sphynx cats, 5 and Vanya, and they want to keep their companions free of heart disease and happily with them as long as possible.

Once Cader established the relationship with Stern, he first donated to research efforts and then funded the Vladimir Cader Early Innovator in Feline Research Award at NC State to be bestowed at the Feline Health Symposium at NC State each year. The award recognizes outstanding trainees — whether interns, residents or graduate students — who demonstrate exceptional innovation in feline-focused research over three years.  

Dr. Victor Rivas, a DVM/Ph.D. student in Dr. Stern’s laboratory at the NC State College of Veterinary Medicine, was the first recipient of the award. Dr. Leo Ragazzo, a senior cardiology resident, was the second, announced Saturday at the 2026 Feline Health Symposium on the NC State CVM campus. Cader also has funded a research fellow focused on feline cardiology health at the college.

Cader says his generosity also was motivated by his surprise at how few people seem to be researching feline health and specifically HCM. 

“I had been reading a lot of work and studies on the genetics of feline heart disease from Kathryn Meurs, whose work I had found online,” Cader said. “I didn’t even know! I came here to meet with Dr Stern, and he introduced me to your dean, Dr. Meurs. It was a pretty crazy thing, because I had been reading her stuff for months.”

To accelerate the research momentum he found at NC State, Cader chose to endow the distinguished chair in feline research, which was announced before the symposium last week.

“His gift is transformational because it lives on in perpetuity and generates funds each year for us to continue working to improve the lives of cats with heart disease,” Stern said. “Somebody at NC State will always be using this platform and funds to make a difference in the life of cats, and it will be a fitting legacy consistently honoring Vlad and moving feline medicine and research forward.” 

About 15% of cats have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or HCM, which causes the heart muscle to thicken, making it harder for the organ to pump blood. It’s the most common type of heart disease in cats.

With the FDA’s conditional approval, the drug that Stern and his team discovered is in its first full year of a five-year pivotal phase that includes the largest feline cardiology clinical trial to date.

‘This Gift Will Change Everything’

“This study, called the HALT study, has already recruited more than 300 cats across 28 different academic and private practice centers that we are leading,” Stern said. “It’s huge, but it’s the last piece to getting this life-changing therapy for our cat companions all the way across the line.”

Stern said he expects the study to conclude in 2027.

Stern was the recipient of the 2024 American Veterinary Medical Foundation’s Career Achievement in Feline Research Award, and Dr. Ronald Li, an associate professor of emergency and critical care at NC State, was the recipient in 2025. Li’s research on feline blood disorders could help explain the mechanisms that cause most cats with HCM to die of blood clots.

With NC State already positioned as a leader in feline health, Stern said Cader’s amazing generosity has turbo-charged the pace at which breakthroughs could come. 

“For feline research, this gift will change everything — everything,” Stern said. “Amos and I share a love of cats and a deep desire to revolutionize our treatment of feline HCM.  He never wanted anybody to go through what he went through with Vladimir again. We simply showed him what our research teams at NC State can do, and he invested in our future.”

Learn More about Giving

If you would like to know how you can support the college’s work in advancing feline health, please contact the Office of Philanthropy at vetmedfoundation@ncsu.edu.