Sekar Kathiresan, a physician scientist and a human geneticist, is the Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Ofer and Shelly Nemirovsky MGH Research Scholar, Director of the Cardiovascular Disease Initiative at the Broad institute, and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  

Dr. Kathiresan leverages human genetics to understand the root causes of heart attack and to improve preventive cardiac care.  Among his scientific contributions, Dr. Kathiresan has helped highlight new biological mechanisms underlying heart attack, discovered mutations that protect against heart attack risk, and developed a genetic test for personalized heart attack prevention.

Dr. Kathiresan received his B.A. in history and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1997. He then completed his clinical training in internal medicine and cardiology at MGH, where he served as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine from 2002-2003.  Dr. Kathiresan pursued research training in cardiovascular genetics through a combined experience at the Framingham Heart Study and the Broad Institute. In 2008, he joined the faculties of the MGH Cardiology Division, Cardiovascular Research Center, and Center for Human Genetic Research.