 | Dr. Richard P. Lifton |
Identifying the genes that can make people susceptible to cardiovascular disease, renal disease and osteoporosis is the focus of research by Dr. Richard P. Lifton, the newly designated Sterling Professor of Genetics.
By investigating families with rare forms of severe hypertension, and using tools of the Human Genome Project, Lifton and his laboratory have identified mutations that cause hypertension and have shown that these act by altering how the kidney handles salt. These studies have provided insights into the causes of and possible new treatments for hypertension. Similar studies by Lifton and his team of researchers have provided new insights into the causes and treatments of disorders of magnesium and pH homeostasis as well as osteoporosis.
After earning a B.A. in biological sciences from Dartmouth College, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1975, Lifton went on to earn M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982 and 1986, respectively, at Stanford University. He took his residency in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, later serving at those institutions as assistant professor of medicine from 1991 to 1993.
Lifton came to the Yale School of Medicine in 1994 as associate professor and became a full professor in 1997. He is currently chair of the Department of Genetics and also holds appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine (Section of Nephrology) and Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry. He is also director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Specialized Center of Research in Hypertension at Yale, and director of the Yale Center for Human Genetics and Genomics. In addition, Lifton has also been an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1994.
In appointing him to a Sterling Professorship. Yale has awarded Lifton one of its highest faculty tributes.
A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Lifton has received numerous honors, including the highest scientific awards of the American Heart Association, the American Socieity of Nephrology and the American Society for Hypertension.
He has lectured widely and recently delivered a plenary lecture at the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine annual meeting.
Lifton, who has served on numerous NIH panels and committees, is currently chair of the NIH oversight committee for large-scale genomic sequencing and is a member of the National Human Genome Research Institute advisory council. He is also an editor of the Annual Reviews of Genomics and Human Genetics.
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