Richard Lifton, MD, PhD
Sterling Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry

Dr. Lifton is Sterling Professor of Genetics, Medicine, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry and Chair of the Department of Genetics. His group has combined clinical investigation of patients and families from around the world with molecular genetic studies to identify genes and pathways that underlie human disease. These studies have identified 25 human disease genes at the molecular level, including genes for cardiovascular, renal, and bone disease. The results have provided new targets for therapeutic intervention and new genetic tests for specific diseases with therapeutic utility, and have revealed the key role of inherited variation in renal salt homeostasis in blood pressure variation. Dr. Lifton is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. His laboratory is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and he serves as Principal Investigator on an NIH SCOR in Hypertension and on three NIH Program Project Grants. Nine of his MD fellows have received NIH KO8/K23, Wellcome Trust, or AHA career development awards and have gone on to independent academic careers at Yale, Columbia, Cambridge (UK), and Munich (GDR) in diverse disciplines (Adult Cardiology, Pediatric Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurosurgery, Child Psychiatry, and Medical Genetics). Dr. Lifton has been recognized three times by the AHA award as mentor to the outstanding physician-scientist trainee in hypertension.