The Journal of Cardiovascular Aging Webinar Series:
Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D. Lectureship
Title: Stem Cell & Genomics: From Precision Medicine to Clinical Trial in Dish

Joseph C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D. is an eminent physician-scientist and a pioneer in the cardiovascular induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) science. Since the first description of the iPSC system by Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, Dr. Wu has been at the cutting edge of iPSC science and is widely recognized as the world-leading scientist in the field.

Dr. Wu received his M.D. from Yale University and Ph.D. (Molecular & Medical Pharmacology) at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed his internal medicine and cardiology fellowship at the University of California Los Angeles and was recruited by his late mentor Dr. Sam Gambhir to Stanford with a dual faculty appointment in the Departments of Medicine and Radiology. At Stanford, his academic success and pioneering research afforded him a meteorite rise to the rank of full professorship with an endowed position within a few years. Dr. Wu is the Director of Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and Simon H. Stertzer, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford University. He is the current President of the American Heart Association (July 2023 – June 2024).

Dr. Wu’s pioneering research is focused on delineating the fundamental mechanisms that govern the pathogenesis of human diseases, discovering new drugs, and testing the therapeutic efficacy and toxicity of the new compounds and interventions. He and his colleagues have successfully applied the iPSC and genomic approaches to delineate the molecular mechanisms of cardiomyopathies, cardiac arrhythmias, congenital heart disease, and cardiotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. Dr. Wu has pioneered the “clinical trial in a dish” concept, which he has successfully applied to accelerate drug discovery and personalize the care of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Dr. Wu has disseminated his discoveries through the publication of over 600 articles, including in major biomedical journals areas of disease modeling, genomics and epigenetics, pharmacogenomics and drug discovery, regenerative medicine, and precision medicine. Collectively, his publications have garnered over 35,000 citations and an H index of 100 per Web of Science and 130 on Google Scholar. Dr. Wu has been listed as the top 0.1% of highly cited researchers by the Web of Science for the past 6 years (2018-2023).

Dr. Wu’s exceptional accomplishments have been recognized by an impressive cadre of awards from several organizations. It is no exaggeration to state that Dr. Wu is unique in garnering the most prestigious awards, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, NIH Roadmap Transformative Award, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (delivered by President Obama at the White House ceremony), American Heart Association (AHA) Distinguished Scientist Award, AHA Merit Award, inaugural recipient of the Joseph A. Vita Award from the AHA, Burroughs Wellcome Foundation Innovation in Regulatory Science Award, and Gill Heart & Vascular Institute Cardiovascular Research Award.

Dr. Wu is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), Association of University Cardiologists (AUC), American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Association of Physicians (AAP), Academia Sinica (Taiwan), National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is an Honorary Lifetime member of the Society of Toxicology.

Dr. Wu serves on the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee. He is on the Board of the Keystone Symposia and American Heart Association. Likewise, he is on the editorial board of numerous journals, including Journal Clinical Investigation, Nature Review Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research, Human Gene Therapy, Molecular Therapy, and several others.

We are most delighted and honored by Dr. Joseph C. Wu to deliver the Sanjiv S. Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D. Lectureship.