Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program, has been elected to serve as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI).
The ASCI is an honor society of physician-scientists founded in 1908 to represent those contributing to clinical care, scientific investigation and education. Now with over 3,000 members from both academia and industry, the ASCI promotes increased funding for science, holds an annual meeting in Chicago and publishes the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
“I am honored and delighted by the opportunity to lead the ASCI community of exceptional physician-scientists and contribute to the advancement of ASCI,” said Ardehali, who is also a professor of Pharmacology and director of the Center for Molecular Cardiology within the Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute (FCVRI).
Ardehali joined the ASCI in 2012 and is currently the secretary-treasurer, and will serve as president during the 2021-2022 academic year.
“I plan to bring new strategies to ASCI to adapt to changes we are facing in biomedical research,” Ardehali said. “We need to ensure that physician-scientists’ perspectives on research funding and health policy are heard at the national level.”
Ardehali also hopes to enhance the physician-scientist pipeline, improve gender equality and diversity in the ASCI, and strengthen the organization’s peer-review publications.
Ardehali’s research as a physician-scientist has focused on the role of iron and metabolic processes in cardiovascular disease. In particular, his investigation into iron homeostasis uncovered a previously unknown regulatory pathway within cells, landing on the cover of Cell Metabolism when the study was published in 2012.
He has continued to investigate this pathway, recently discovering a protective cellular mechanism that kicks in during iron deficiency, keeping cells running even in the face of continued iron deprivation. These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In addition, Ardehali is the first Feinberg faculty member to serve as president of the organization, though Elizabeth McNally, MD, PhD, the Elizabeth J. Ward Professor of Genetic Medicine, a professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and director of the Center for Genetic Medicine, served as president during the 2011-2012 academic year when she was a faculty member at the University of Chicago.
Ardehali is also a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
