Francois M. Abboud

Professor of Internal Medicine and of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Edith King Pearson Chair of Cardiovascular Research, Chair Emeritus, Department of Internal Medicine, Founder-Director, Abboud Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Associate Vice President for Research, University of Iowa. Research focuses on integrative neurobiology of the cardiovascular systems. He has studied the interaction of cardiovascular reflexes; the central neural control of the heart and circulation with aging, hypertension and sleep apnea, and the mechanism of arterial baroreceptor and rheoreceptor activation. He has elucidated the role of endothelial factors in modulating electrical activity and iona channels in baroreceptor neurons. He discovered the evolutionary conserved mechanosensitive molecules which contributed to mechanoelectrical transduction of these neurons. His work has advanced the frontier of knowledge of the effects of gene transfer and transgenic mutations on the autonomic sensory signals and the neural control of the heart and blood vessels. Most recently he defined proinflammatory innate immune cells in genetic hypertension.