Pál Pacher, M.D., Ph.D.

The Laboratory of Cardiovascular Physiology and Tissue Injury (LCPTI) conducts translational research aimed at understanding the mechanisms that drive tissue injury and chronic disease and applying these discoveries to the development of new therapeutic strategies. The laboratory focuses on the complex interactions among oxidative and nitrative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, lipid mediators-including endocannabinoid signaling-and cell-death pathways such as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activation.

To bridge fundamental discoveries with human disease, LCPTI integrates studies of human tissues and other biospecimens with mechanistic investigations in cellular systems and clinically relevant animal models. The laboratory studies ischemia-reperfusion injury, cardiomyopathies and heart failure, kidney disease, cardiovascular aging, and alcohol-associated injury to the heart, liver, kidney, and brain. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding communication among organs during disease and identifying disease-relevant pathways that can be targeted pharmacologically. The laboratory's overarching goal is to discover and validate new therapeutic targets for preventing or treating tissue injury, chronic diseases and their complications.

Dr. Pál Pacher received his M.D. and Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from Semmelweis University of Medicine in Hungary in 1993 and 1999, respectively. In recognition of his scientific achievements, including his contributions to the development and standardization of pressure-volume analysis in rodents-which has become the gold standard for comprehensive in vivo hemodynamic assessment-he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor Honoris Causa) by the Faculty of Medicine at Semmelweis University in 2015.

After completing two years of postdoctoral research at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and two years in pharmaceutical drug development in the Boston area, Dr. Pacher joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2003. In 2005, he became Chief of the Section on Oxidative Stress and Tissue Injury, and he received scientific tenure in 2012. Since 2015, he has served as Head of the Laboratory of Cardiovascular Physiology and Tissue Injury at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

Dr. Pacher has authored or co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications, which have been cited more than 75,000 times, and has an h-index of 145. Since 2010, he has consistently ranked among the world's most highly cited scientists in several disciplines, including Pharmacology and Toxicology, Clinical Medicine, and Biology and Biochemistry.

Dr. Pacher served as president of the International Cannabinoid Research Society from 2018 to 2019 and serves on the editorial boards of numerous scientific journals. He has received multiple national and international awards recognizing his research contributions and is an elected Fellow of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, and the American Physiological Society. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Cancer Redox Biology Faculty at the National Cancer Institute.