Michael Rosen, MD, FHRS

The Heart Rhythm 2008 Douglas A Zipes Lecture recipient is Michael Rosen, MD, FHRS, who will speak on Thursday, May 15.

Meet Michael Rosen

Dr. Michael R. Rosen is the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Professor of Pharmacology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director of the Center for Molecular Therapeutics at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York. He is also Adjunct Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Stony Brook University and a member of Stony Brook’s Institute for Molecular Cardiology.

Dr. Rosen received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in 1960 and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in 1964. He subsequently trained in internal medicine and cardiology at Montefiore Hospital in New York, served in the United States Air Force and then as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at Columbia University. He joined the faculty of that department in 1972 and has remained there throughout his career, becoming Professor of Pharmacology and Pediatrics in 1981. He was named the Gustavus A. Pfeiffer Professor of Pharmacology in 1991.

Dr. Rosen has received long-term funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and has been an author or co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts. His research interests initially focused on the electrophysiology and pharmacologic prevention and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. In the 1970s he and his colleagues identified afterdepolarizations as an important cause of cardiac arrhythmias and studied the mechanisms and clinical implications of triggered activity, work that has had major clinical impact. Another area of investigation explored by Dr. Rosen and associates through the 1990s has been developmental cardiac electrophysiology in which the contributions of developmental changes in ion channels and the autonomic nervous system have been emphasized. This has been the primary subject of an NHLBI-funded Program Project Grant now in its 25th year.

Two more recent research foci have been: (1) Cardiac memory: Dr. Rosen and collaborators have identified the mechanisms whereby altered activation of the heart temporarily or permanently alters the expression of repolarization. Most importantly these studies help us understand the early molecular-biophysical and genetic changes that initiate remodeling in the setting of pacemaker therapy and specific arrhythmias. These studies, too, are funded by the NHLBI; (2) Gene and stem cell therapies. The most advanced aspect of this research is on biological pacemaking, in which use of adult human mesenchymal stem cells as a platform loaded with cardiac pacemaker genes is being tested as an alternative to electronic pacemaker therapy. The potential advantage of this approach is that it offers a more physiological pacemaker therapy than does electronic pacing. Dr. Rosen’s group also is working with gene and cell therapies of tachyarrhythmias, stem cells to effect myocardial replacement and repair and stem cells as platforms to introduce silencing RNA to various cell types as a potential anti-cancer therapy.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Dr. Rosen has contributed to science-related activities in the academic and lay communities. These activities include chairing the Basic Science Council and the Scientific Program Committee of the American Heart Association, and as an activist in issues of broader perspective, such as public and political education on the importance of science to society and the protection of scientific funding for this mission. He has served on three NIH and two American Heart Association Study Sections, on the recombinant DNA advisory committee at NIH, and currently is on the Advisory Committee for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. He is editor of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, consulting editor for Circulation Research and Cardiovascular Research, and a member of the editorial boards of Circulation and HeartRhythm Journal.

Dr. Rosen is the recipient of many awards; among them are the American Heart Association’s Award of Merit, Chairman’s Award, and Distinguished Achievement Award, the Einthoven Award commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Einthoven’s invention of the electrocardiogram, the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Heart Rhythm Society and the Gordon K. Moe Lectureship of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society.