1947-

José Jalife, MD, FHRS, 2009 Distinguished Scientist Award recipient

Biography

José Jalife, MD, FHRS is the Cyrus and Jane Farrehi Professor of Cardiovascular Research and a professor of internal medicine and molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, and co-director of the UM Center for Arrhythmia Research. He was born in Mexico City, Mexico and received his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1972. After clinical training in Spain, he returned to Mexico to conduct research in cardiovascular pharmacology and physiology at the Universidad Nacional and the National Institute of Cardiology. In 1973, he moved to the United States to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY, and the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory in Utica, NY, headed by Gordon K. Moe, MD, Ph.D. Jalife then joined the Department of Pharmacology, SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, and became its Chairman in 1988, leaving for Michigan in January 2008.

Today Jalife is one of the leading scientists in the world studying normal and abnormal heart rhythms and his research has led to fundamental observations on mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias. These insights will provide new therapeutic approaches to treating patients with inherited ion channel abnormalities as well as for acquired arrhythmias such as atrial and ventricular fibrillation.

Jalife’s work ranges from the molecule to the bedside, including the molecular mechanisms and nonlinear dynamics of heart rhythm and conduction disturbances, leading to reevaluation of classical criteria for the diagnosis of complex arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation and ventricular fibrillation. He has studied the cellular mechanisms of dynamic vagal control of heart rate and atrioventricular conduction and the mechanisms of pacemaker synchronization in the sinoatrial node; non-linear dynamics of excitation and propagation in isolated cardiac tissues; wave propagation and spiral wave formation in cardiac muscle; and more recently, the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying sudden death in inherited arrhythmogenic diseases.

His work has led to major advances toward elucidating the molecular and cellular bases of the initiation and propagation of electrical impulses in the heart and the fundamental mechanisms of complex life-threatening arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. He has published more than 250 original papers and review articles, and has edited/authored thirteen books, including the internationally recognized Cardiac Electrophysiology: From Cell to Bedside, now in its fifth edition. His research has been supported by RO1 grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Established Investigator and Scientist Development grants from the American Heart Association (AHA), numerous of Grants-in-Aid and fellowships from AHA and the Heart Rhythm Society, and two currently active Program Project Grants from the NHLBI.

His awards include the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American College of Cardiology, the Lucian Award for Research in Circulatory Diseases from McGill University, the President’s Award for Research at SUNY Upstate Medical University, the Professor Pierre Rijlant Award from the Académie Royale de Médecine de Belgique in Brussels, Belgium and the 2002 State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. In 2008, Dr. Jalife was elected Honorary Member of the Mexican National Academy of Medicine. The Heart Rhythm Society awarded Dr. Jalife the Distinguished Scientist Award in 2009.