Dr. Garret A. FitzGerald is a preeminent scientist whose career exemplifies the highest standards of translational medicine and therapeutics research. He currently serves as the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he also directs the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and acts as Senior Advisor to the EVP and Dean. His distinguished educational background includes an MB BCh with Honors from University College Dublin in 1974 and a Diploma in Statistics from Trinity College Dublin in 1977. Prior to his tenure at Penn beginning in 1994, he established significant leadership roles including chairing the Department of Medicine in Dublin and directing the Division of Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. His twenty-year chairmanship of the Department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics cemented his reputation as a transformative academic leader in biomedical science.
Dr. FitzGerald's research has fundamentally reshaped cardiovascular pharmacology through his integrative approach spanning cellular models, animal systems, and human clinical studies. His pioneering work in the 1980s provided the scientific foundation for low-dose aspirin as standard cardioprotective therapy, a practice that has become global medical standard saving countless lives from heart attacks and strokes. In 1999, he made the landmark contribution of predicting and then mechanistically explaining the cardiovascular hazards associated with NSAIDs, particularly COX-2 inhibitors like Vioxx, which ultimately led to critical safety revisions in pain medication usage. His laboratory's discovery of numerous lipid peroxidation products established essential biomarkers for measuring oxidant stress in vivo, while his team's identification of the first molecular clock within the cardiovascular system opened new frontiers in understanding circadian regulation of cardiovascular and metabolic health.
Beyond his direct research impact, Dr. FitzGerald has profoundly influenced the field through institutional leadership and scientific advocacy. He established the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at Penn in 2005, creating the first dedicated institute of its kind that became the model for subsequent NIH Clinical and Translational Science awards nationwide. His scholarly influence extends to prestigious national service on the Council of Councils of the NIH and the Drug Forum of the Institute of Medicine. As a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal Society, and honorary member of both the Royal Irish Academy and the Accademia dei Lincei, he continues to champion rigorous scientific approaches to drug development and safety. Currently, his laboratory maintains its dual focus on prostanoid biology and molecular clocks while exploring innovative therapeutic approaches for hypertension and atherosclerotic disease, ensuring his work remains at the cutting edge of translational science with immediate clinical relevance.
