Appointment of Penn Cardiovascular Institute Director
March 10, 2017
To:Faculty, Students and Staff
From:J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD
Jon Epstein, MD
Re: Appointment of Daniel P. Kelly, MD, as Penn Cardiovascular Institute Director
It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Daniel P. Kelly, MD, as the new Director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute (CVI), effective August 2017. Dr. Kelly, a longtime faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis, joins Penn from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, FL, where he has served as the founding Scientific Director since 2008. Dr. Kelly is a nationally renowned leader for his three decades of work on mitochondrial function, with emphasis on heart failure and diabetes. He will also be appointed as the Ware Endowed Professor of Medicine.
The Penn CVI is a multi-disciplinary group of more than 70 principal investigators focused on translational research in heart and vascular care. It has a national reputation for its groundbreaking basic research and for developing new medical devices and treatments for cardiovascular disease. In his new role, Dr. Kelly will lead multiple initiatives to accelerate cardiovascular science in partnership with basic and clinical departments throughout the School of Medicine.
Dr. Kelly’s work has defined a gene regulatory axis involved in the control of cardiac fuel metabolism and mitochondrial biogenesis. Through pioneering work on nuclear receptors including the PPARs, estrogen-related receptors (ERRs), and their transcriptional coactivator PGC-1, his laboratory has identified molecular “switches” in this regulatory pathway that define distinct forms of heart failure, and provide an important step toward identifying therapeutic targets for phenotype-specific treatment of heart failure.
Dr. Kelly obtained his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago in 1982 and performed his residency and clinical cardiology fellowship at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, followed by postdoctoral research training at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Kelly joined the Washington University faculty in 1989 and rapidly moved up the ranks to Professor of Medicine, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology, and Pediatrics. He was the founding Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research at Washington University and served as Chief of the Cardiovascular Division. In 2008, Dr. Kelly assumed the role of founding Scientific Director for the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona, FL, a center for interdisciplinary research focused on the broad area of metabolism with translational focus on new therapeutic targets for diabetes, obesity, and its cardiovascular complications.
Dr. Kelly, who has published more than 170 scientific papers in leading journals, has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific achievements, including the Distinguished Achievement Award (Basic Cardiovascular Sciences Council) and the Basic Research Prize from the American Heart Association. He is currently on the Editorial Board for Genes and Development and serves as an Associate Editor for The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Kelly on his appointment as CVI Director and welcoming him to Penn.