David Alan Kass, MD

David A. Kass, M.D. received his B.A. in applied physics & engineering from Harvard University in 1975 and earned his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1980. He completed his residency at George Washington University School of Medicine in internal medicine, followed by a cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Among his numerous honors received are the 2008 Basic Science Achievement Award from the American Heart Association,and Distinction in Teaching and Mentorship Awards from Johns Hopkins University. He has also trained over 70 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, many of whom are in leadership positions at their institutions. Dr. Kass is currently the Director at the Johns Hopkins Center for Molecular Cardiobiology and a Professor in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

Dr. Kasss current research interests include his leadership of the Center for Molecular Cardiobiology, where he coordinates basic and translational research at Johns Hopkins University with the aim of paving the road to newer and more effective treatments for cardiovascular disease. Under the directorship of Dr. Kass, the Center is working to expand its understanding of the causes of heart failure, arrhythmia, and artery disease, and how physicians can treat, cure, and prevent them in the future. More specifically, Dr. Kass and his colleagues have discovered that the drug, Viagra, can potently influence how the heart responds to abnormal stress. This work, from Dr. Kasss lab, has led to a major clinical trial now underway by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and to new studies for treating disorders such as muscular dystrophy. Additionally, the lab was awarded a new grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation, to study mechanisms for heart disease in patients suffering from Duchennes disease. As an international leader in the use of pacing devices in heart failure patients, his laboratory is also pioneering research that may ultimately lead to a completely new way to use pacemakers.

Another important new study that was conducted in Dr. Kasss lab, identified how the vessels in the lung uniquely impact the right heart, and are different in a fundamental way from the arteries in the rest of the body that influence the left heart. This has important implications for the treatment of heart failure, and patients with a form of hypertension that affects the arteries in the lung.