Dr. Jason Becker received his medical doctorate from Tulane University School of Medicine where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. He then completed his internal medicine residency, cardiology fellowship, and post-doctoral research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Becker is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms regulating the pathogenesis of genetic and acquired cardiomyopathies in an effort to identify novel methods to prevent heart failure and sudden death. They utilize preclinical animal models, human induced pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes, and human tissue samples to identify how sarcomere gene mutations and other hypertrophic stimuli impact cardiomyocyte biology. Investigators in his laboratory discovered that sarcomere gene mutations lead to aberrant cardiomyocyte cell cycle activity, causing endoreplication and DNA damage, which impacts cardiomyopathy development. The activation of these pathways in cardiomyocytes also leads to changes in other cell populations within the myocardial tissue microenvironment, resulting in reduced myocardial capillary formation and microvascular dysfunction in the adult heart. Likewise, Dr. Becker’s lab has made significant discoveries in the role of cardiac natriuretic peptides in regulating cardiac development and arrhythmogenesis. Since starting his laboratory, Dr. Becker’s research has been supported by multiple National Institutes of Health and foundation awards. In addition to laboratory based research, Dr. Becker is an active collaborator in clinical trials for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and directs the Center for Inherited Heart Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center since 2018.