Jil C. Tardiff, MD, PhD
Dr. Tardiff joined the University of Arizona faculty in 2012. She is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a group of inherited heart muscle disorders that affect approximately one in 500 people and are among the leading causes of sudden cardiac death in young individuals.
Since 2001, her NIH-funded research has examined how genetic mutations drive HCM at the cellular level using transgenic mouse models. Her work has advanced understanding of disease mechanisms and informed clinical trials evaluating new therapeutic approaches for patients with HCM.
In collaboration with Steven Schwartz, PhD, in the University of Arizona Department of Chemistry, Dr. Tardiff's laboratory has developed computational models that use protein structure to better understand and predict disease severity. This work helps bridge fundamental discoveries with advances in patient care.
She recently received a $1.4 million award to continue investigating how different genetic mutations contribute to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and to identify new therapeutic strategies, particularly for children and young adults.
Degrees
- MD: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, 1992
- PhD: Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City, 1992
- BA: Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, 1984
Research Interests
mechanisms that underlie the development of the most common form of genetic cardiomyopathy, those caused by mutations in proteins of the cardiac sarcomere, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)