Taegtmeyer receives IACS-NAS Merit Award
A renown cardiology faculty member is the recipient of the Merit Award from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences – North American Section.
Heinrich Taegtmeyer, MD, DPhil, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology, recently received this highest honor bestowed by the IACS-NAS in recognition of his vast scientific contributions.
Taegtmeyer’s research addresses the complexities of cardiac metabolism — the mechanisms by which the heart turns chemical energy into pump action. “The heart needs to eat to beat,” he said. Optimizing the fuel supply to the normal and stressed heart is the main goal of his research.
In addition to receiving the award at the 11th Annual Scientific Meeting of the IACS-NAS in Houston, Taegtmeyer was the invited speaker at the meeting’s opening session.
Taegtmeyer joined the Medical School faculty 42 years ago and is also on the MD Anderson UTHealth Graduate School faculty. Taegtmeyer’s laboratory has been funded by the NHLBI for 46 years. During his career at McGovern, he has mentored scores of students, fellows, and junior faculty. In addition, he served as principal investigator of a T32 Institutional Training Grant, developing a training course to facilitate the career development of research trainees.
He graduated summa cum laude with his medical degree from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and he earned a DPhil (PhD) from the University of Oxford, England, where his supervisor was Professor Sir Hans A. Krebs, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953 for the discovery of the metabolic cycle named after him.
The mission of the IACS is to promote cardiovascular education of professionals and lay people and to recognize major cardiovascular achievement throughout the world.