Michael Simons, M.D., Appointed Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale

Michael Simons, M.D., a distinguished heart researcher and physician, has been appointed section chief of cardiovascular medicine at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH). 

Simons assumes his new position at YNHH and YSM on September 1, having served as chief of cardiology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and professor of medicine and of pharmacology and toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School. He was also director of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s cardiovascular center and the angiogenesis research center and served on the medical center’s board of governors. While at Dartmouth, Simons received the department of medicine’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

With more than two decades of distinguished academic, clinical and administrative achievements to his credit, Simons previously served as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and attending cardiologist at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He was also director of Beth Israel’s coronary care unit.

Simons received his B.S. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at New England Medical Center, Boston, before serving as a medical staff fellow and postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of molecular cardiology, at National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Simons completed his fellowship in cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, and postdoctoral training at MIT where he was the associate scientist in the Program for Excellence in molecular biology of the cardiovascular system.

“Michael Simons is an outstanding cardiologist, scientist and educator who will lead our program to new heights,” said Jack A. Elias, M.D., chief and chair of internal medicine at YNHH and Yale School of Medicine and Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Medicine at YSM. “His passion for the combination of state of the art clinical medicine and cutting edge molecular medicine will ensure that cardiovascular medicine at Yale-New Haven will provide the latest in outstanding personalized care. We are thrilled we were able to recruit him to Yale.”

Simons’ research interests include fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling in the vascular system, regulation of arterial development and branching and endothelial signaling. He is also interested in the clinical applications of biological therapies—developing strategies for delivery and assessment of various biological agents (genes, proteins, antibodies, receptor “traps”)—and in identification and validation of novel biomarkers that predict individual responses to therapeutic interventions.