HEART SCIENTIST TO LEAD MEDICAL BIOTECHNOLOGY CENTER

BALTIMORE, Md.--Pioneering heart researcher W. Jonathan Lederer, M.D., Ph.D., has been selected by the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute as Director of UMBI's Medical Biotechnology Center (MBC). Lederer, who has served as interim director, also leads a team of researchers who are exploring the functions of calcium molecules in heart cells. "Jonathan Lederer is a world-renowned leader in research on heart physiology, diseases of the cardiovascular system and molecular medicine, so I am very pleased and excited that he has accepted the position of MBC Director," says Jennie Hunter-Cevera, UMBI president. "Jon is an exceptional scientist. The investigations he directs are critically important to efforts to improve understanding and treatment of heart disease-the leading cause of death in Maryland and in the United States," she adds. The Medical Biotechnology Center, founded in 1986, is one of five UMBI research and education centers. MBC researchers draw on some of the most sophisticated laboratory tools available in physics, biochemistry and genetic engineering to discover and apply new basic science principles to medicine. The licensing of patents and technology adapted from MBC research is an active part of state mandate to UMBI's for leading economic development in biotechnology, comments Hunter-Cevera.

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As the new MBC Director, Lederer says he accepts the challenge of combining basic
research and technology transfer, "My colleagues are superb scientists who, at UMBI, can see
real-life applications in their fundamental discoveries. When such inventive people are stimulated to think about application, they find it in every discovery."

Since Lederer joined the University System of Maryland in 1979, he has been a prolific scientist and educator. During his career, he has authored or co-authored over 150 refereed journal papers including 11 papers in the journal Science and three in Nature. He has published nearly 30 book chapters. He also has served on the editorial boards of many scholarly publications and is a member of eight scientific associations. And he has taught a wide range of courses in medicine and physiology and has mentored many doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Following undergraduate training in biochemistry at Harvard University, Lederer earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at Yale University under Richard W. Tsien while conducting research that characterized membrane currents in the heart that cause many cardiac arrhythmias. Then after his medical internship under Peter Petersdorf at the University of Washington in Seattle, Lederer attended Oxford University in London, UK, as the British-American Heart fellow, working with Denis Noble, FRS.

Lederer began studying cell biology of the heart over 25 years ago. He has pioneered cellular and molecular investigations in the study of heart failure and arrhythmia.

He is recognized for making major contributions to the current understanding of calcium regulation, both in the heart muscle and in skeletal and smooth muscle and other tissues. Calcium controls the heartbeat and many functions of the brain and sensory organs.

Lederer discovered calcium (Ca²⁺) sparks in the heart. The sparks are the elementary event in excitation-contraction coupling in heart muscle that underlies the heart beat. Lederer and colleagues also discovered calcium sparks in skeletal and smooth muscle tissue, work reported that has revolutionized molecular investigations of such tissues, as well as in the heart.

In a recent paper in Science, Lederer and colleagues reported a phenomenon he called "slip-mode conductance." The new discovery showed that sodium (Na⁺) channels in the heart could also conduct Ca²⁺, thus providing researchers with new insights into how such selectivity is controlled in the heart cell channels. It also offered completely new therapeutic possibilities for treatment of heart disease.

Hunter-Cevera points out that Lederer is currently a star researcher of the USM having been awarded the Board of Regents Award for Research in 1999. "He also brings with him a
talented collection of scientists and collaborators from around the world, a well-funded research program and the energy and vision to fruitfully expand our Medical Biotechnology Center into important new areas.

MBC researchers have expertise medicine, molecular and cell biology, optics, applied physics, engineering, bioinformatics, functional genomics and proteomics, and biochemistry. The current faculty address fundamental questions in neurobiology, molecular cardiology, the biology of aging, cellular biophysics, cell signaling, muscle biology, bioengineering, applied physics and optics, bio-sensing, and protein structure and function. MBC Faculty also teach and mentor medical and graduate students through affiliations with other USM institutions including the University of Maryland Baltimore, School of Medicine and the University of Maryland Baltimore County.