Dr. Deb is a tenured professor in the Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles and the direfctor of the UCLA Cardiovascuar Research Theme. Dr. Deb obtained his MD degree from Medical College Calcutta (University of Calcutta, India). He subsequently completed residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN and carried out further post-doctoral research training in cardiac stem cell biology at Duke University. Dr. Deb is a practicing cardiologist and is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Deb’s laboratory studies the biology of cardiac repair and mechanisms of dysregulated wound healing in the heart. Every 30 seconds, someone in the United States suffers from a heart attack and more than 700,000 patients are annually diagnosed with heart failure. The heart has a poor ability to regenerate and excessive myocardial fibrosis or calcification of heart valves represent common and clinically important examples of dysregulated tissue healing that contribute immensely to the development of heart failure. The long-term goal of the Deb lab is to identify and target mechanisms of fibrosis and calcification to engender new therapies for these pathologic conditions. The lab uses human tissue, stem cell modeling, genetic fate mapping and murine models with gain and loss of function approaches to arrive at new solutions. For his contributions to cardiac wound healing, Dr. Deb has received the AHA Katz award for basic science research as well as more recently the Transformative research award from the NIH. His work is funded by NIH, DoD and CIRM as well as by multiple philanthropic organizations such as the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Oppenheimer Foundation and the Rose Hills Foundation.