McNally to direct new cardiovascular institute

Elizabeth McNally, Associate Professor in Medicine, has been named Director of the new Institute for Cardiovascular Research at the University, where she will work toward building a world-class interdisciplinary team of scientists focused on key questions in cardiovascular biology.

To accomplish this goal, she will work to organize cardiovascular interests among researchers and trainees at the University as well as to recruit new faculty members interested in cardiovascular research.

Areas of particular interest within the Institute for Cardiovascular Research include basic and translational research relating to cardiovascular development, cardiovascular regeneration, and myocyte and vascular biology.

“Dr. McNally is well suited to lead this effort,” said James Madara, Dean of the Division of the Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs, as well as the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Distinguished Service Professor in Pathology.

“She has quickly established herself as a leading investigator in cardiovascular research, having made seminal contributions to our understanding of the genetics of degenerative cardiovascular and neuromuscular disease, vascular spasm and regenerative medicine.”

McNally’s research has been recognized with a number of honors and awards, including the Charles E. Culpeper Medical Scholarship, an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and the Clinical Scientist Translational Award from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

She received her B.A. from Columbia University’s Barnard College in 1983, and her M.D. and Ph.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1990.

Following residency and clinical and research fellowships at Harvard Medical School, McNally joined the Chicago faculty in 1996 as an Assistant Professor. In 2003, she was promoted to Associate Professor in Medicine and Human Genetics.

“This should be an exciting new component to the research program in the Biological Sciences,” said McNally. “We have a diverse array of outstanding cardiovascular research on campus, and this institute should serve to augment and expand this very important area.”