Columbia University Medical Center Announces First Annual Katz Prizes In Cardiovascular Research
Esteemed Cardiologists Eugene Braunwald and Geoffrey Pitt Named Inaugural Katz Winners
NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2006 – Columbia University Medical Center today awarded the first annual Katz Prizes in Cardiovascular Research to an accomplished cardiologist whose cholesterol research has led to dramatically improved patient outcomes and a promising young molecular cardiologist at Columbia University Medical Center.
The extraordinary lifetime achievement of Eugene Braunwald, M.D., Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and chairman of the Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) study group at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is being recognized by the inaugural Lewis Katz Visiting Professorship in Cardiovascular Research.
Geoffrey S. Pitt, M.D., Ph.D., Esther Aboodi Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Center for Molecular Cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center, has been awarded the Lewis Katz Cardiovascular Research Prize for a Young Investigator, which recognizes a junior faculty member at Columbia University Medical Center with great promise for contribution to the study of cardiovascular disease.
The Katz Prizes, created at Columbia University Medical Center through the generosity of entrepreneur and philanthropist Lewis Katz, recognize excellence in cardiovascular research and education and will be awarded to two outstanding physician-scientists annually. Each recipient will receive $100,000.
“Dr. Braunwald and Dr. Pitt reflect the ideal of excellence in cardiovascular research and education that we honor with the Katz Prizes,” said Allan Schwartz, M.D., Chief of the division of Cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center. “Dr. Braunwald’s outstanding career has revolutionized therapies for heart failure and coronary artery disease. Dr. Pitt’s inquiries into calcium signaling could lead to promising new treatments for both cardiovascular and neurological disorders.”
Dr. Braunwald has been a major force in cardiology for half a century. His early work focused on the control of ventricular function. He was the first to measure both left ventricular ejection fraction and left ventricular pressure in patients. For the past 21 years, as chairman of the TIMI Study Group, he and his colleagues demonstrated improved patient survival with a patent coronary artery. His research has demonstrated the benefit of more intensive reduction of low density lipoproteins (LDL), sometimes called “bad cholesterol,” in high risk coronary artery patients. This work has changed practice guidelines and will favorably affect the lives of millions. Recently he co-edited an American Journal of Cardiology supplement on statin clinical trials for lipid-lowering that provides up-to-date information on statin therapy. Dr. Braunwald is an editor of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine and the founding editor of Heart Disease, now in its 7th Edition, which are among the most influential textbooks in their fields.
Dr. Pitt joined Columbia in 2001, and since then has been studying how ion channels in the heart contribute to normal cardiac rhythm, and the life-threatening arrhythmias caused when calcium regulation is perturbed. He also has focused on abnormalities in calcium signaling and subsequent dysregulation of ion channels that lead to multiple neurological disorders, such as epilepsy, ataxias, and autism. His studies in cardiology and the molecular physiology of cardiovascular ion channels stand out as an example of pre-clinical research that bridges clinical science and has built and strengthened links among the disciplines of molecular cardiology, pharmacology, and molecular neurobiology. Through his teaching efforts in several medical school courses and while serving as an attending physician in the division of Cardiology, Dr. Pitt has shown a strong commitment to training and mentoring the next generation of researchers to influence these interdisciplinary fields.
The generous founder of these prizes, Lewis Katz, is the former owner of Kinney Parking Systems and now a director, a trustee of Temple University and Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University, and a founding member of the Boys and Girls Club of Camden County. He is a partner of the New Jersey NBA and New York Yankees Baseball.
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