Profile

I grew up in the US, was educated at Harvard, Penn, and Duke, then trained at the National Institutes of Health in the lab of Nobel Laureate Marshall Nirenberg, the man who solved the “genetic code.” I was recruited to Houston, Texas, as part of a pioneering program on molecular biology of the heart, and was fortunate to become an early leader in this very new field. Eight years ago I moved to Imperial College London, where I head the British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence, and have the opportunity to collaborate with Europe’s best engineers, chemists, and mathematicians, bringing their knowledge and experience to disorders of the heart.

Half of our current projects involve stem cells my lab discovered in the adult heart, seeking the best ways to purify, grow, implant, and activate them. In other projects, we discovered molecules that become activated in diseased heart muscle and cause the muscle cells to die, and we are now are inventing drugs to rescue the endangered cells. I am especially proud of my having trained more than 75 scientists, including current professors in the US, UK, Canada, Sweden, Taiwan, China and Japan.

My typical day relies on having many windows open on the computer at the same time. Any new research paper, book chapter, or grant proposal that I write needs (1) a word processor, obviously; (2) a web browser, for seeking and downloading relevant articles; (3) a document reader; (4) EndNote, for the bibliography; (5) spreadsheet, for analysing data, making graphs, and calculating grant budgets; (6) one or two graphics programmes, to create the final illustrations; (7) e-mail, to keep track of my collaborators and administrators; (8) iTunes.  Mozart piano trios help me relax and think clearly; Clapton and the Stones help me write fast.