Cardiovascular Division Chief Dr. Sumanth Prabhu has announced that Kory Lavine, MD, PhD, will serve as the next Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research (CCR), effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Lavine is currently Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the CCR. In his new role, he will succeed Dr. Jeanne Nerbonne, who has ably led the CCR for the past 10 years.
Dr. Lavine received his MD and PhD degrees under the auspices of the MSTP program at Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), with his graduate work performed in the laboratory of Dr. David Ornitz. He then completed internal medicine residency, cardiovascular disease fellowship, and advanced heart failure and transplant fellowship, and post-doctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Mann as part of the WUSM PSTP program. He joined the divisional faculty in 2014 in the Section of Heart Failure and Transplantation as an Instructor of Medicine, and rapidly rose through the ranks to tenured Associate Professor in 2019. Dr. Lavine also serves as Co-Director of the Pediatric Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research T32 Training Program and Director of the Cardiovascular Precision Medicine Research Initiative.
In addition to being a heart failure-transplant clinician, Dr. Lavine is an internationally recognized as a leader in the field of cardio-immunology, especially related to innate immune responses in heart failure. He has made several seminal contributions in this area, including the delineation of functionally distinct macrophage populations in the heart, the role of embryonic-derived macrophages in coronary vessel growth and adaptive remodeling, and understanding the cellular landscape in the human failing heart using single cell sequencing. He has contributed immensely to the rich scientific and training environment of the CCR, and the growth and expansion of Center activities.
“I am thrilled that (Dr. Lavine) will be assuming the reigns of the CCR, the flagship cardiovascular research organization at WUSM, and lead it during its next phase of development,” wrote Dr. Prabhu in the announcement sent to the Division.
“I want to express my personal gratitude to Dr. Jeanne Nerbonne for her outstanding leadership of the CCR for the last decade. Under Dr. Nerbonne’s leadership, the CCR reached new heights in national scientific reputation, with faculty expansion and a strong and cohesive cardiovascular research and training community at WUSM.”