Faculty

Thomas P. Cappola, MD, ScM

William Smilow Professor

Department: Medicine

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
11-113 South Pavilion
3400 Civic Center Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Office: 215-662-3140
Fax: 215-349-8017

Email:
thomas.cappola@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Publications

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Education
A.B. (Chemistry)
Princeton University, 1991.
M.D. (Medicine)
Harvard Medical School, 1995.
Sc.M. (Clinical Investigation )
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2004.

Links
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Penn Health Profile

Permanent link

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Description of Research Expertise

Thomas Cappola is the William Smilow Professor and Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research aims to uncover heart failure mechanisms in human subjects and to use these insights to improve treatment. This has involved diverse approaches, including applied genomics, population science, laboratory studies, and clinical trials. He has established and leads a multicenter cohort study of advanced heart failure (Penn Heart Failure Study, PHFS); co-loads a multicenter consortium for human myocardial transcriptomics and systems genetics (Myocardial Applied Genomics Network, MAGNet); serves as a Principal Investigator on the NHLBI Heart Failure Clinical Research Network; and is a contributing member of numerous international genomics consortia. Within the Cardiovascular Division, he has established collaborative leadership to create programs integrating science and clinical care, and has used these as a platform for research and training. In his clinical role, he treats patients with advanced heart failure on the inpatient and outpatient heart failure/transplant service.

Description of Clinical Expertise

My clinical focus is evaluation and treatment of advance heart failure including medical therapy, device therapy, investigational therapy, and cardiac transplantation

Selected Publications

Kim M, Subramanian V, Tavolinejad H, Sarmiento Bustamante M, Pourmussa B, Mann DL, Javaheri A, Richards AM, Doughty RN, Rietzschel E, van Empel V, Zamani P, Cappola TP, Tong D, Chung S, Pandey A, Chirinos JA.: Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential Proteomic Risk Score for Predicting Clinical Outcome in Patients With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction. Circ Heart Fail Page: doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.126.014345, Sep 2026.

Zelleke AB, Azzo JD, Moreno JD, Mann DL, Cappola TP, Chirinos JA, Javaheri A.: RACGAP1 as a Circulating Biomarker of Atrial Fibrillation in Heart Failure: A Dual-Cohort Proteomic Study. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol 19(5): e014024, May 2026.

Skarke C, El Jamal N, Genuardi MV, Brooks TG, Mrčela A, Lahens NF, Cordoza M, Sarles S, Mbadugha A, Karunamuni DR, Gupta S, Bae CJ, Sehgal A, Cappola TP, Gutsche JT, Atluri P, Desai ND, Acker MA, Grant GR, Schwab RJ, Rosen IM, FitzGerald GA.: Quantifying sleep wake rhythms in the hospital environment with digital technologies. NPJ Digit Med 9(1): 479, Apr 2026.

Vidula MK, Schurgers LJ, Zhao L, Dib MJ, Zhao M, Wang Z, Ebert C, Salman O, Azzo JD, Zamani P, van Empel V, Richards AM, Doughty R, Javaheri A, Mann DL, Rietzschell E, Kammerhoff K, Schafer P, Seiffert DA, Ramirez-Valle F, Cappola TP, Chirinos JA.: Dephospho-Uncarboxylated Matrix Gla-Protein Is Associated With Adverse Outcomes in Heart Failure. Circ Heart Fail 19(2): e012734, Feb 2026.

Mann DL, Chirinos JA, Yu J, Yang W, McNamara DM, Richards B, Taddei-Peters WC, Jeffries N, Stewart GC, Qian C, Cappola TP, Aaronson KD; REVIVAL Investigators.: Circulating Proteomic Profiles in Ambulatory Patients With Advanced Stage C2D Heart Failure: Insights From the Registry Evaluation of Vital Information for VADs in Ambulatory Life (REVIVAL) Registry. J Card Fail 32(8): 1451-1455, Jan 2026.

Abramowitz SA, Hoffman-Andrews L, Zhang D, Judy R, Cappola TP, Day SM, Reza N, Owens AT, Damrauer SM, Levin MG; Penn Medicine BioBank: Polygenic background and penetrance of pathogenic variants in hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies. JAMA Cardiol Page: e254739, Dec 2025.

Vajargah KK, Dib MJ, Tavolinejad H, Zamani P, Richards AM, Mann DL, Rietzschel E, van Empel V, Burgess S, Cappola TP, Chirinos JA.: Proteome-Wide Genetic Investigation of Kidney Function in Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction. JACC Heart Fail Page: 102771, Nov 2025.

Woerner J, Westbrook TM, Joo J, Shivakumar M, Venkatesh R, Cherlin T, Jung SH, Jeong S, Maseda D, McKeague M, Shwetank, Ionita M, Wagenaar J, Abramowitz SA, Verma A, Zhao B, Lee S, Damrauer S, Levin MG, Heo SC, Cappola TP, Rader DJ, Day S, Deo R, Gelfand JM, Ramessur R, Guerraty MA, Setia-Verma S, Pasaniuc B, Ritchie MD, Apostolidis SA, Greenplate AR, Wherry EJ; Penn Medicine Biobank; Nam Y, Kim D.: Large-scale evaluation of proteomic and polygenic risk scores reveals complementary contributions to incident disease prediction. medRxiv [Preprint] Page: 25331242, Jul 2025.

Lindholm ME, Abramowitz S, Waggott DM, Grove ME, Dewey FE, Pan C, Pavlovic A, Shang C, Huang Y, Bensabath L, Goldfeder RL, Cordero P, Erbilgin A, Priest JR, Chaib H, Puckelwartz MJ, Day SM, McNally EM, Cappola T, Dorn GW, Ashley EA, Wheeler MT: Identification of candidate cardiomyopathy modifier genes through genome sequencing and RNA profiling. Front Cardiovasc Med 12: 1546493, Jul 2025.

Wang Q, Tang TM, Youlton M, Weldy CS, Kenney AM, Ronen O, Hughes JW, Chin ET, Sutton SC, Agarwal A, Li X, Behr M, Kumbier K, Moravec CS, Tang WHW, Margulies KB, Cappola TP, Butte AJ, Arnaout R, Brown JB, Priest JR, Parikh VN, Yu B, Ashley EA: Epistasis regulates genetic control of cardiac hypertrophy. Nat Cardiovasc Res 4(6): 740, Jun 2025.