About TM

Who am I?

I am a physician-scientist with an interest in how cells and tissues in the cardiovascular system talk to one another.  My lab uses biochemical and cell biological approaches to understand  key cardiovascular signal transduction pathways.  We have studied the endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), a signaling enzyme involved in the control of vascular tone, myocardial contractility and platelet aggregation. My lab is now focusing more on the roles of reactive oxygen species in physiological and pathophysiological pathways in the heart and vasculature.  We  recently developed chemogenetic approaches to study redox signaling and redox stress in cultured cells and in vivo, and have generated a new animal model of heart failure using chemogenetics. The National Institutes of Health has provided continuous funding for my research endeavors for the past two decades.

I am active as an educator at HMS, and am a Professor of Medicine (Biochemistry) at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Co-Director of the Leder Human Biology and Translational Medicine Program at HMS. I also serve on the leadership council of the Harvard/Massachusetts Institute of Technology MD-PhD Program.

As a Senior Physician in cardiovascular medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH),   my clinical interests include general cardiology and ischemic heart disease. I am board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.

By way of personal background, I was born and raised in Portland, OR, and then went to Harvard College.  I received my MD and PhD degrees from Duke University School of Medicine, where I pursued my PhD thesis research in the lab of Robert Lefkowitz. I completed an internal medicine residency, a clinical cardiology fellowship and a genetics research fellowship at BWH.   My non-academic interests include bird-watching and playing the accordion- but not at the same time.   And I am deeply involved in the annual IgNobel Prize Ceremony, where I am the founding director of the Boston Squeezebox Ensemble- the official accordion octet of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.

View Dr. Michel’s BWH Research Profile
View Dr. Michel’s BBS Faculty Profile
View Dr. Michel’s Catalyst Profile