A name long associated with the understanding of sudden cardiac death is Dr. Robert Myerburg, Professor of Medicine and Physiology at the University of Miami.

Dr. Myerburg did his undergraduate and medical training at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, respectively. He completed his internship at the University of Maryland Hospital and then joined the military to serve two years at the US Public Health Service Heart Disease Control Program. Residency in internal medicine was at Charity Hospital at Tulane University, followed by a Fellowship in Cardiology at Emory University. After this he became a research fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at Columbia College of P&S in New York. There he began his exploration of the human atria and the canine AV conduction system. By this time he had already written a solo chapter on Sudden Death for THE HEART 2nd Edition by JW Hurst.

In 1970 Dr. Myerburg was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at The University of Miami, followed a year later with the same appointment in the Department of Physiology. He currently serves as Director of Cardiology at Miami, a service he has provided since 1973.

Dr. Myerburg’s clinical and basic studies have provided a wealth of new information in our field with seminal contributions arising from his work post-MI and CHF associated arrhythmias. Because the focus of this year’s Moe lecture is on remodeling, it is important to point out the very significant contributions of the Myerburg lab to our understanding of ion channel remodeling, particularly post myocardial infarction.

In 1977, Dr. Myerburg with the several colleagues at Miami (including Gelband, Sung, Bassett and Morales) published a cell electrophysiology paper that clearly documented long term changes in transmembrane action potentials in cardiac cells post MI. Some years later, his laboratory provided indications that there were marked differences in cell electrophysiology between the epicardium and endocardium in the hearts of experimental animals. His group showed that the endocardial myocyte responded differently to simulated ischemia than did the epicardial myocyte (Circ Res 1990). This paper was quickly followed by the initial description of the marked differences in K currents between the epicardial and endocardial myocytes (Circ Res 1990).

His past awards have included An Outstanding Teacher Award (University of Miami), A Distinguished Achievement Scientific Council Award by the AHA (1991), the 8th Annual Michel Mirowski Award for Excellence in Cardiology, the Distinguished Scientist Award by NASPE (2000) and recently the 2001 Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award (University of Miami). We are honored that he has accepted our invitation to be this year’s Gordon K. Moe Lecturer.