Biography

Dr. Taegtmeyer received his Dr. med. (summa cum laude) from the University of Freiburg (Germany) in 1968, and his DPhil in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, UK, in 1981. Dr. Taegtmeyer joined the UT faculty in 1982. He served as Director of the UT Cardiology Fellowship Program 1988-94, and achieved the rank of Professor in 1991. Dr. Taegtmeyer’s lab has received NIH research funding consistently over the last 30 years. He is a reviewer for many competitive journals. He served as an Associate Editor for Circulation (1993-2004); is an Associate Editor for Cardiology (1993-present), and is on the Editorial Boards of Circulation Research, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Journal of the American College of Cardiology – Imaging. Dr. Taegtmeyer lecturers world-wide on heart failure, diabetes, and heart metabolism.

Dr. Taegtmeyer is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, a Fellow of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, and the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences. He served as President of the Society for Heart and Vascular Metabolism 2006 to 2009. Dr. Taegtmeyer is board certified by the ABIM in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. He has supervised 12 graduate students and 16 postdoctoral fellows, and he has mentored 15 medical or surgical residents on research rotations as well as 43 summer students. Many of his students hold academic appointments in the US (Yale, UCLA, UCSD, Baylor College of Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and The University of Texas Houston Medical School) and in Germany.

Dr. Taegtmeyer was a full member of the NIH Metabolism Study Section from 1989 to 1993 and has since served as an ad hoc member of various NIH study sections on a yearly basis. In 2005 the Director of the NHLBI named Dr. Taegtmeyer to the NIH Protocol Review Committee for the IMMEDIATE Trial. In 2006 he was named to the NHLBI Data Safety Monitoring Board for the IMMEDIATE Trial. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the University Clinical Research Center since 1995, and on the MacDonald Fund Research Committee since 2007.

 

Board Certifications

  • Medizinisches Staatsexamen (Germany)
  • Approbation als Arzt (Germany)
  • American Board of Internal Medicine
  • American Board of Internal Medicine – Cardiovascular Diseases

Education

Medical School
University of Freiburg
Doctoral Education
University of Oxford
Residency
Boston City Hospital
Fellowship
Peter Bent Brigham Hospital

Areas of Interest

Clinical Interests

  • Obesity and Diabetes
  • Heart Failure
  • Consultative and outpatient cardiology
  • Electrocardiography

Research Interests

Dr. Taegtmeyer’s lab studies regulation of energy substrate metabolism, gene expression and signal transduction in the heart. At the molecular level, the lab studies mechanisms by which metabolically generated signals regulate signaling pathways of cardiac growth and reverse remodeling (protein degradation). The focus is on self-renewal of the cardiomyocytes. Models include hypertrophied and atrophied heart in vivo, isolated working hearts, and isolated heart muscle cells in culture. Clinical studies investigate molecular mechanisms of heart failure and effects of diabetes and obesity on the heart.