Prof. Robert Kass Columbia University, USA

Dr. Robert S. Kass is Vice Dean for Research, Alumni & Hosack Professor of Pharmacology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University, New York City. Dr. Kass received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Michigan in 1972 and began studying electrical activity in cells first... read moreat the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, MA) and then under Richard Tsien's mentorship at Yale University in 1973. First at the University of Rochester and now at Columbia University, Dr. Kass has directed research focused on ion channel activity in the heart since 1977. His contributions include discovery of calcium dependence of spontaneous diastolic arrhythmic activity; mechanism of action of calcium channel blockers; mechanistic basis of adrenergic control of potassium channel activity in the heart; and more recently the molecular pharmacology, sympathetic regulation, and biophysical consequences of inherited human mutations causally related to genetic arrhythmia syndromes.