University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa

Dr. Abboud is internationally recognized for his discovery that the heart plays a major role as a neurosensory organ, a finding that has advanced scientific understanding about autonomic control of circulation. As a result, biomedical researchers know more about the interplay between the nervous system and the heart, and doctors can better treat heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension and neurocardiogenic syncope.   Dr. Abboud is widely known for pioneering the use of multidisciplinary teams in cardiovascular research -- "a visionary paradigm shift" for the field.  Dr. Abboud is the Edith King Pearson Chair of Cardiovascular Research. He directs an interdisciplinary cardiovascular research training program and a Program Project Grant on Integrative Functions in Neurovascular Control, now in its 32nd year. He has been director of the Cardiovascular Research Center since 1974.   Dr. Abboud has served as president of several leading national organizations, including the American Heart Association, the Association of American Physicians, the Central Society for Clinical Research, and the American Federation for Clinical Research.  Dr. Abboud is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious CIBA Award for Hypertension Research conferred by the American Heart Association, and is former editor-in-chief of Circulation Research.

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, Iowa

Dr. Abboud is internationally recognized for his discovery that the heart plays a major role as a neurosensory organ, a finding that has advanced scientific understanding about autonomic control of circulation. As a result, biomedical researchers know more about the interplay between the nervous system and the heart, and doctors can better treat heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea, hypertension and neurocardiogenic syncope.   Dr. Abboud is widely known for pioneering the use of multidisciplinary teams in cardiovascular research -- "a visionary paradigm shift" for the field.  Dr. Abboud is the Edith King Pearson Chair of Cardiovascular Research. He directs an interdisciplinary cardiovascular research training program and a Program Project Grant on Integrative Functions in Neurovascular Control, now in its 32nd year. He has been director of the Cardiovascular Research Center since 1974.   Dr. Abboud has served as president of several leading national organizations, including the American Heart Association, the Association of American Physicians, the Central Society for Clinical Research, and the American Federation for Clinical Research.  Dr. Abboud is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious CIBA Award for Hypertension Research conferred by the American Heart Association, and is former editor-in-chief of Circulation Research.

University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, Calif.

Dr. Coughlin's cardiovascular research discovered how thrombin, an enzyme that causes blood to clot, works on the cellular level. In the process, he identified a new family of receptors that are broadly involved in a number of biological processes and have important implications for the development of novel treatments for diseases and pathologic events in which thrombosis plays an important role, including heart attacks and many strokes. His discoveries led to a greater understanding of platelets and clot formation.  Dr. Coughlin is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. In 2004 he won the Bristol Myers Squibb Cardiovascular Research Award and he was elected to the National Academy of Science.  He joined the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco in 1984 as a postdoctoral fellow and joined the faculty in 1986. He was named professor of medicine in 1996 and was appointed professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, as well as director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute in 1997.

Harvard Medical School
Boston, Mass.

Dr. Gimbrone is the Elsie T. Freidman Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, director of the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology and chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass. His research focuses on the mechanisms of vascular disease, in particular the role of the endothelial cell in complex disease processes such as atherosclerosis, thrombosis and inflammation. He was among the first to establish reproducible methods for the in vitro culture of endothelium and smooth muscle from human blood vessels and to use the tools of modern cell biology and molecular biology to dissect their functions in health and disease.  He is a past-president of the American Society for Investigative Pathology and the founding president of the North American Vascular Biology Organization. His seminal contributions to the field of vascular biology have been recognized by the Warner-Lambert Parke Davis Award in Experimental Pathology (FASEB), an Established Investigator Award and the Basic Research Prize from the American Heart Association and the Cardiovascular Research Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Institute. Dr. Gimbrone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine.

Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, Texas

Dr. Hobbs is interested in defining the genetic factors responsible for differences in blood cholesterol levels. She has discovered genetic defects causing both very high and low plasma levels of cholesterol. Her characterization of these defective genes has provided insights into cholesterol metabolism and identified new drug targets for the treatment of elevated levels of plasma cholesterol, the major risk factor for atherosclerosis and heart disease.

Dr. Hobbs is a professor of internal medicine and molecular genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She graduated from Stanford University and earned her M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She received her clinical training as an internist and endocrinologist at Columbia-Presbyterian and at UT Southwestern. In her work she has used human genetics to elucidate key pathways in cholesterol and lipoprotein trafficking. Her major contributions, together with Jonathan Cohen, include the discovery of the molecular basis for the variation in the plasma levels of the atherogenic lipoprotein Lp(a) and the defective genes causing two autosomal recessive forms of severe hypercholesterolemia: sitosterolemia (ABCG5 or ABCG8) and autosomal recessive hypercholesterolemia (ARH). She showed that ABCG5 and ABCG8 limit intestinal absorption and promote biliary excretion of dietary sterols and that the adaptor protein ARH is required for efficient clearance of LDL from plasma. She found that loss-of-function mutations in PCSK9 are present in more than 2 percent of African Americans and that these alleles are associated with reduced plasma levels of LDL and protection from coronary atherosclerosis. She has provided evidence that sequence variations with major effects collectively contribute significantly to plasma levels of HDL and LDL. Most recently, she has used population-based resequencing to identify new genes and sequence variations that contribute to inter-individual variability in levels of triglycerides and HDL. She is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine,  American Heart Association and Academy of Arts and Sciences . She received the Heinrich Wieland Prize for metabolism research and the American Heart Association Clinical Research Prize.