Page 16 - CBAC Newsletter 2013

CBaC Fellow SPotlight

r. Kory Lavine is a young man with a wealth of scientific experience. With close to twenty publications to his
name, and a recent recipient of the Rising Star Research Award issued by the Washington University School of
DMedicine, he is definitely a scientist and clinician on the rise. Here, he speaks of family, research, and future
pursuits:

I was raised by my parents to respect how much you can learn from others through keeping an open mind and
appreciating different points of view. As a student and now as a physician-scientist, maintaining this mindset has been
essential towards developing a career in academic medicine and science. My mother is a mathematician who has
dedicated her life to teaching both the gifted and under privileged and my father is a cardiologist who specializes in
echocardiography and the physiology of heart failure.

My most important personal achievement is meeting my wife, Ashley Steed who is a phyisician-scientist at St. Louis
Children’s hospital in the division of Pediatric Critical Care and having our daughter who turned 2 in July.

CBAC: How long have you been involved in basic science?

I have essentially been involved in basic science research for 15 years.

I selected a high school that at the time specialized in mathematics and science and subsequently enrolled at the
University of Rochester in N.Y. where I majored in Cell and Developmental Biology. I also played soccer for the Uni-
versity of Rochester. As a student athlete, I learned how to balance two very different lives and deal with adversity.
There are two of the most important lessons that I have learned in life so far. My first exposure to biologic sciences
and laboratory work was in college. At the University of Rochester I had the honor and privilege to work with two of
the best scientists that I have encountered, Drs. Martin Gorovsky and David Goldfarb. I took several classes from Dr.
Gorovsky who was also my advisor and worked in the laboratory of Dr. David Goldfarb. Together these mentors taught
me the fundamentals of what rigorous science actually entails and how to plan and execute experiments. During the
summers, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Russell Finely at Wayne State University (Detroit) who inspired me to seek
and to challenge currently accepted paradigms and taught me that our understanding of the world is in constant flux
influenced by popular themes and available tools.

I subsequently joined the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Washington University in St. Louis in 2001. I
chose to pursue an M.D., Ph.D. for several reasons. The first of which was to continue developing as a basic scientist.
To this end, I worked under the mentorship of Dr. David Ornitz and obtained my PhD in developmental biology. In Dr.
Ornitz’s laboratory I investigated the signaling mechanisms that control cardiomycyte proliferation and coronary artery
formation during mouse embryonic development. We further showed that some of these signaling mechanisms are
conserved in the adult mouse and are essential for maintenance of the coronary vasculature. I have continued to utilize
the paradigm that signaling mechanisms that regulate heart development are utilized to regulate analogous processes
in the adult in my current work.

I chose to simultaneously pursue a career in medicine because I enjoy helping others. This is also the primary reason
that I want to be a scientist, to learn novel things that will hopefully positively influence others lives. To this end, I have
chosen to ask questions in the laboratory that will potentially provide answers that will improve our knowledge of dis-
ease and identify new treatment strategies.

I chose heart failure and transplant cardiology because I find taking care of patients with heart failure very rewarding.
While there is still much to learn, for many patients we are able to change, extend and improve their lives.

10 | CBAC Center Heartbeat