Andrew Marks, MD

Chairman, Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, Columbia University Medical Center; Founding Director, Wu Center for Molecular Cardiology at Columbia University

Dr. Andrew Marks received his undergraduate degree in Biology and English from Amherst College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. Following an internship and residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Marks worked as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School, studying the glucocorticoid receptor in the laboratory of Howard Goodman, PhD. He subsequently completed a clinical cardiology fellowship at Massachusetts General.

Dr. Marks looks for ways to turn observations from the clinic or lab into new therapies for patients. In 1989, he made his first breakthrough discovery related to a calcium release channel. He has spent his career working to define its regulation in health and disease. In 2000, he discovered that “leaky” calcium release channels (ryanodine receptors) contribute to heart failure and fatal cardiac arrhythmias, and he subsequently showed that the leaky channels contribute to impaired exercise capacity in muscular dystrophy and abnormalities in post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease. In 2005, he developed a new class of drugs, Rycal® (currently in clinical trials), which fix leaky channels and have the potential to treat heart, muscle and brain disorders. His discoveries are responsible for a first-of-its-kind treatment for heart failure and the first drug-eluting stent used to prevent coronary artery stent restenosis. In 2014, Dr. Marks made additional breakthrough discoveries that have contributed to new understandings of fundamental mechanisms that control muscle contraction, heart function, lymphocyte activation and cognitive function.

Today, the Marks lab is devoted to improving basic understanding of the mechanisms that regulate calcium-dependent signals. For his discoveries, Dr. Marks has received numerous honors, including the 2010 Stanley J. Korsmeyer Award. He is a member of the National Academies of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.