José Jalife

José Jalife Sacal
Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid
Project Leader

Dysfunction of ion channel complexes in inheritable cardiac diseases.

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young is a rare but tragic event whose pathophysiology is poorly understood. Our objective is to understand the emerging role of macromolecular ion channel complexes in the mechanisms of SCD in heritable diseases of the young. Our recent discovery of the interplay of the main cardiac Na+ channel (NaV1.5) and a strong inward rectifier K+ channel (Kir2.1) in the control of cardiac excitability offers an exceptional opportunity to define the molecular bases of SCD. These two ion channels form “channelosomes” and physically interact with common partners that include adapter, scaffolding and regulatory proteins. Our most recent results reveal a novel dual mechanism of arrhythmogenesis involving defects in Kir2.1 and Nav1.5 channel function at two different microdomains. They also provide the first demonstration of the mechanism underlying the overlap between Andersen-Tawil syndrome and catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia associated with defects in intracellular calcium homeostasis, arrhythmias and SCD.

Dr. Jalife is a distinguished senior investigator at Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC). The general focus of Dr. Jalife's laboratory is the understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The objective is to understand the emerging role of macromolecular ion channel complexes in the mechanisms of SCD in inherited diseases. He was previously Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan during 11 years. He has obtained different awards such as the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology, the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Heart Rhythm Society, and Mirowski Award of Excellence in Clinical Cardiology and Electrophysiology. In 2015, he was awarded a degree of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Valencia in Spain. In 2019, he received a University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center Director´s Lifetime Achievement Award. (Read full CV).

Role of ion channel dysfunction in the molecular mechanism of arrhythmias in inherited and acquired cardiac diseases, including atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death.

Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC)
Melchor Fernández Almagro, 3
28029 Madrid
Tel.: (+34) 91 453 12 00
Mobile: (+34) 664 06 36 70

Email: [email protected]