Affiliation: Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. West is a Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He uses a combination of cell culture techniques, genetically engineered mouse models, and patient data to study primarily pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Although many of his projects have focused on lung pathology, he also has several lines of research focused on preserving right heart function, the actual cause of mortality in PAH patients. He is currently studying the role of heritable mutations in regulation of vasculogenesis and cell-cell junctions, metabolism, and interaction between pulmonary vascular cells and circulating inflammatory cells, as well as examining mechanisms of right heart adaptation and failure. His work has successfully translated to several promising clinical trials. Dr. West received a PhD in Physics from Georgia Tech in 1996, with post-docs in developmental biology and pulmonary hypertension at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He started his own NIH-funded lab there in 2003, before moving to Vanderbilt in 2007.