I am pleased to announce the appointment of Fadi Salloum, Ph. D. to be the Interim Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. As a dedicated basic and translational researcher, educator and mentor with more than 25 years of experience at VCU, Dr. Salloum has the expertise, broad institutional experience and leadership skills to manage and navigate this important department through a time of both change and opportunity.
Dr. Salloum has been serving as Associate Chair for Research for the Department of Internal Medicine since 2020 and as Associate Director of Research Mentoring and Preclinical Science for the Pauley Heart Center since 2022. He is also co-chair of our School of Medicine task force charged with the important task of reimagining our basic health science departments.
Dr. Salloum joined VCU in 1998 as a graduate student in the certificate program after graduating from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon with his B.S. in Biology. He later enrolled in the PhD program in the Department of Physiology (currently Physiology and Biophysics) and earned his PhD in Physiology with emphasis on Cardiovascular Physiology in 2005. Dr. Salloum completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Cardiology before joining the Cardiology faculty as Assistant Professor of Medicine in 2009. Dr. Salloum was appointed as an Affiliate Faculty member of Physiology and Biophysics in 2011 and serves as acting director of its “Cardiac Function in Health & Disease” course.
Dr. Salloum’s research has been continuously funded as PI, MPI or co-investigator on numerous NIH-, American Heart Association (AHA)-, University-, and Industry-funded grants since 2010. He currently leads a multi-disciplinary basic science and translational research program funded by the NIH with the most recent funding of the prestigious 7-year NHLBI R35 award (R35HL155651), Phase II SBIR in partnership with NovoMedix (R44HL164314) and the AHA Strategically Focused Research Network (23SFRNPCS1063855). The lab’s focus is on the role of novel or repurposed drugs in cardio protection against ischemia- and/or cancer therapy-related injury and adverse cardiac remodeling through suppression of sterile inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction that may lead to heart failure.
Dr. Salloum has published more than 120 original manuscripts and review articles and several book chapters. The impact of his research on the field is reflected by a Google Scholar record exceeding 11,600 citations. He was recently appointed as Associate Editor for CardioOncology, the official journal of the International CardioOncology Society.
He is the recipient of a number of honors and awards at VCU for teaching, research and mentoring, including being named the inaugural Natalie N. and John R. Congdon Sr. Endowed Chair, VCU Pauley Heart Center, in 2018. In recognition of his service to the scientific community, Dr. Salloum was elected Fellow of the American Heart Association in 2011 and the American Physiological Society in 2017.
During his career at VCU, Dr. Salloum has served on numerous committees at the department and school level, and presently serves on the Animal Care and Use Program Advisory Committee, Department of Internal Medicine’s Promotion and Tenure Committee, Reimagining Basic Health Science Committee, Chairs’ Interdepartmental Research Collaboration (CIRC) Committee and Clinical Operations Service Agreement (COSA) Research Group Committee.
Please join me in congratulating and supporting Dr. Salloum in this new role.
Sincerely,
Arturo P. Saavedra, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, VCU School of Medicine
Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, VCU Health System