The Johns Hopkins Heart and Vascular Institute is pleased to announce the following appointments:

Charles Lowenstein

Charles Lowenstein, M.D., has been appointed director of the Division of Cardiology and co-director of the Heart and Vascular Institute. Dr. Lowenstein originally came to Johns Hopkins as a cardiology fellow in 1991 after completing his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a research fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1993, he joined the Johns Hopkins faculty and helped lead the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease until he was recruited in 2009 to become the chief of cardiology and director of the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has served on the NIH Atherosclerosis and Inflammation Cardiovascular Sciences study section, and is a member of the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, an organization that funds medical student research. Dr. Lowenstein’s research focuses on vascular biology, exploring molecular mechanisms of vascular inflammation and thrombosis.

Bret Mettler

Bret Mettler, M.D., has been appointed director of pediatric cardiac surgery and co-director of the Blalock–Taussig–Thomas Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center.

Dr. Mettler joins Johns Hopkins from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he served as the director of pediatric cardiac transplantation and mechanical support since 2010. A native of South Dakota, where he was a magna cum laude undergraduate and medical student at the University of South Dakota, Dr. Mettler has had extensive and impressive surgical training at leading centers throughout the country. He completed his surgical residency training at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Michigan. He completed a research fellowship in cardiac tissue engineering at Boston Children’s Hospital, followed by a cardiothoracic surgical residency at the University of Virginia and a congenital cardiac surgery fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Mettler has distinguished himself as a gifted and accomplished pediatric and congenital heart surgeon. He has also held numerous academic and leadership appointments in national associations including the Joint Council on Thoracic Surgery Education, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association and the Thoracic Surgery Residents Association, of which he was president.

Avinash Ganti

Avinash Ganti, M.D., specializes in all facets of vascular surgery, with particular interest in extracranial carotid disease, aortic aneurysmal and occlusive disease, and peripheral arterial occlusive disease — including challenging infra-inguinal reconstructions. With more than a decade of experience as a practicing vascular surgeon, Dr. Ganti comes to Johns Hopkins from St. Agnes Hospital, where he was an attending physician. He primarily sees patients at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Olurotimi Mesubi

Olurotimi Mesubi, M.B.B.S., M.P.H., is a board-certified cardiologist specializing in clinical cardiac electrophysiology. He practices primarily in Baltimore, Maryland, and is an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Mesubi has particular interest and expertise in inherited arrhythmia disorders and channelopathies, such as long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome, catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT), muscular dystrophies and arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies. Dr. Mesubi performs pacemaker and defibrillator implantations and complex catheter ablations for cardiac arrhythmias. His basic research focus explores the molecular mechanisms linking diabetes mellitus to atrial fibrillation.