• IM/Cardiology

The Goldhaber laboratory studies the regulation of cardiac contractility and sinoatrial node activity. Abnormal contractile function is a key feature of heart failure, a condition which affects over 5 million Americans and is a major driver of health care costs. Sinus node dysfunction is another common disease, which is responsible for 200,000 permanent pacemaker implantations every year and which also contributes to conditions such as atrial fibrillation. Both heart failure and sinus node disease are caused in part by abnormal intracellular calcium cycling. The Goldhaber laboratory studies the basic mechanisms of intracellular calcium cycling, particularly the role of the sodium-calcium exchange transporter, on cardiac muscle contractility and sinus node function. The sodium-calcium exchanger is an electrogenic transporter located on the surface membrane of cardiac cells. It is considered to be the dominant calcium efflux transport mechanism in cardiac cells. The Goldhaber laboratory uses specialized techniques in multiple complementary biological models to study the interaction between calcium regulation and molecular transporter structure/function, ion channel biophysics, calcium signaling and cellular electrophysiology. Methodology includes high speed laser scanning confocal microscopy, voltage mapping, conventional patch clamp, mutagenesis and giant patch.

• Undergraduate: Harvard College, 1980
• Medical School: Harvard Medical School, 1984
• Internship: UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1985
• Residency: UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1987
• Fellowship: UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1990