Jay & Jeanie Schottenstein Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences

Richard Kitsis, MD, is a professor of Medicine and Cell Biology, where he holds the Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros Chair in Cardiovascular Disease. He also serves as the Director of the Wilf Family Cardiovascular Research Institute at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medicine in New York City. His laboratory has delineated fundamental mechanisms of cell death and roles of cell death in heart disease. This work has established that regulated forms of cell death are primarily responsible for heart damage during myocardial infarction and delineated novel molecular mechanisms that have provided the basis for drug development.

A renowned scholar, physician and caregiver, Anderson's research, commitment to education and medical leadership have earned international recognition. He is a leading expert on the mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure, conducting research focused on the role of the calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) in heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias, which are a common cause of sudden cardiac death. In a seminal 2008 study, his team found that CaMKII could be activated by the oxidization of the amino acid methionine, allowing the protein to sustain its activity even without the presence of calcium or calmodulin. This mechanism, and its activation by angiotensin II-induced oxidation, can lead to cell death in cardiomyocytes, while later work showed that oxidized CaMKII contributes to atrial fibrillation, heart failure and asthma. His work, most recently funded by an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, has continued to explore the potential for targeting oxidized CaMKII in treating atrial fibrillation and heart failure without inadvertently inhibiting the molecule's critical role in the brain.

Dan Roden, MD, is at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he serves as a professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Biomedical Informatics and senior vice president for Personalized Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After serving as chief of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology for 12 years, he was tasked in 2006 with leading Vanderbilt’s efforts in personalized medicine. He’s been principal investigator for the Vanderbilt sites of the Pharmacogenomics Research Network since 2001 and of the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics Network since 2007.

Helen Hobbs, MD, is a professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She is co-director of the Hobbs-Cohen Lab in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development. Since 2002, she has been a Howard Hughes Investigator. Dr. Hobbs was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2004 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2007, and was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2015 and the Passano Award (with Jonathan Cohen) in 2016. She is the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery Jr., M.D., Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology and the Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development.

Roberto Bolli,MD, is professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics; Jewish Hospital Heart and Lung Institute Distinguished Chair in Cardiology; executive vice chair of the Department of Medicine; director of the Institute of Molecular Cardiology; and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Garret FitzGerald, MD, is the McNeil Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he chairs the Department of Pharmacology and directs the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.

Christine Seidman, MD, is professor in the departments of Medicine and Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is also the Thomas W. Smith Professor of Medicine.

Pascal Goldschmidt, MD, was the inaugural recipient of the Schottenstein Prize. He’ is a cardiologist and cardiovascular researcher, and former dean of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Until January 2016, he also served as chief executive officer of the University of Miami Health System. He is currently president and CEO of American Healthcare System, European Care Global and Alzady International.