Steven O. Marx, M.D., is the Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Program at Columbia University Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and is director of the cardiology component of a NIH training grant for cardiology fellows and surgery residents. His research program in cardiovascular diseases at Columbia has been focused in two major areas: molecular cardiology, particularly the regulation of ion channels in normal and pathological conditions in the heart, and vascular biology, particularly the molecular mechanisms of vascular smooth muscle proliferation, migration and contractility. Working with others at Columbia, Dr. Marx has identified rapamycin (sirolimus) as a therapeutic agent for preventing restenosis after angioplasty/stent implantation. He also characterized the dysfunction of the ryanodine receptor in heart failure. A major focus of Dr. Marx's current research is the regulation of arterial contractility and blood pressure by the ion channels. Dr. Marx received his B.S. in Biology from Union College and M.D. from Albany Medical College as part of a six-year program. Following a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in ion channel research at Johns Hopkins, he completed an internship and residency at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital followed by a Cardiology Fellowship and a Clinical Electrophysiology Fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. He is also the principal investigator of several NIH R01 grants and a T32 grant. Dr. Marx has served on NIH and AHA peer review committees, is a member of the AHA Founders Affiliate Research Committee, and serves on the New York Academy of Medicine Glorney-Raisbeck Selection Committee.