Dr. Michael I. Kotlikoff Cornell University, USA

Dr. Michael Kotlikoff is the Austin O. Hooey Dean of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and Professor of Physiology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Kotlikoff received his V.M.D. degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. degree in Physiology at the University... read moreof California, Davis, and began studying electrical activity in cardiac and smooth muscle cells at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. He moved to Cornell in 2000 to Chair a newly formed Department and establish mouse transgenic facilities. Dr. Kotlikoff's laboratory initially described the specific ion channels that are expressed in smooth muscle cells and their role in cellular excitation. More recently his laboratory has focused on cardiac repair, using genetics, molecular biology, and imaging to define the role of progenitor cells and to explore the potential of cell-based therapy. His laboratory has also pioneered the creation and use of purpose -designed fluorescent proteins as genetically –encoded calcium sensors to examine cell signaling in vivo at the molecular level, using these tools to understand cardiac and vascular biology.