Dr. Michael Widlansky Brings New Perspective to Heart Attack and Stroke Research
Jan. 2008 CVC UPBEAT - Michael E. Widlansky, MD, MPH, is an "energetic new faculty member who is taking vascular function research to a new level at the Medical College," said collaborator David Gutterman, MD, the Medical College's Senior Associate Dean for Research and the Northwestern Mutual Professor of Cardiology.
Dr. Widlansky's research generally focuses on clarifying the understanding of the controls of blood vessel function in humans and determining how this relates to the development of blockages within blood vessels that cause strokes and heart attacks.
In July 2007, Dr. Widlansky was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at MCW and Director of the Vascular Translational Laboratory, a core lab primarily developed and supported by the Cardiovascular Center (CVC). The lab supports integrative research activities from a variety of investigators in several departments, including David Harder, PhD, the Kohler Co. Professor in Cardiovascular Research and Director of the CVC.
"Altered regulation of blood vessel function has been shown to predict future strokes and heart attacks," said Dr. Widlansky. "We perform blood vessel function testing in humans using ultrasound and other modalities to assess blood vessel health. These studies often involve observing changes in blood vessel function that occur after an intervention designed to improve blood vessel function."
The studies performed by Dr. Widlansky and his colleagues are truly translational in nature. Dr. Widlansky said he chose this type of research because, "it gives me an opportunity to do scientific work that helps build bridges between the basic science laboratory and population based studies, and also allows me to collaborate with investigators in many fields."
"I was attracted to the Medical College because of its strong vascular biology basic science group and the chance to collaborate with such a large breadth of established investigators," he added.
A Michigan native, Dr. Widlansky and his wife, Shannon, who is from Indiana, also were attracted to Milwaukee because of its central location close to their families. They recently moved into a new home in Whitefish Bay.
Prior to beginning his faculty appointment at the Medical College in June, Dr. Widlansky completed a Clinical and Research Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, and a Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He earned a Master's Degree in Public Health with a concentration in Biostatistics and Epidemiology in 2004 from Boston University.
Prior to completing an internship and Medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Dr. Widlansky received his MD degree from the University of Michigan and a BS degree in Chemistry at Stanford University.