| Dr. Mark Sussman is a Professor of Biology at San Diego State University and the Chief Research Scientist at the San Diego State University Heart Institute. Dr. Sussman was recently selected by the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Science division to receive this year's Distinguished Achievement Award. Dr. Sussman currently serves on multiple leadership and review committees for the American Heart Association at both affiliate and national organisation levels. Dr. Sussman created the first mouse model of dilated cardiomyopathy. During his eight year tenure at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, his lab completed more than a dozen published studies that examined the multiple facets of the pathogenesis of dilation in tropomodulin mouse model including calcium handling abnormalities, cytoskeletal defects, and altered signal transduction. Dr. Sussman also examined molecular interventional strategies to inhibit the progression of dilation and heart failure. His pioneering studies related Akt/PKB and gender as he demonstrated myocardial differences between the sexes. Dr. Sussman's current research involves the surprising effects of nuclear Akt/PKB signaling for cardiomyocytes including anti-hypertrophic signaling, induced downstream mediators of cell survival including Pim-1 kinase, and the potentiation of survival and regenerative capacity for cardiac stem cells. His studies have been published in renowned journals including the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Medicine. Dr. Sussman's research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. He was recognised as an Established Investigator of the National American Heart Association in 2000 and has authored over 75 peer-review articles. During the last fifteen years, he has spoken at many national national and international venues with over 100 invited presentations. Dr. Sussman served as Chair of the study section for Cardiac Contractility, Hypertrophy, and Heart Failure at the National Institutes of Health and has been a standing member of editorial boards for several journals including Circulation Research, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the American Journal of Physiology (Heart and Circulatory Physiology), Regenerative Medicine, and the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. His laboratory at San Diego State University serves as a training ground for undergraduate, masters and doctoral students, and postdoctoral trainees who are now mentored under Dr. Sussman’s guidance. Dr. Sussman has championed efforts to bring together cardiovascular researchers in the San Diego academic community with a collaborative research Program Project Grant that will pool knowledge and resources to further studies on the molecular and cellular basis of heart failure – the first award of its kind for any California State University campus. Source & Image Credit: San Diego State University Heart Research Institute | ||
