New scientific director for CIHR’s Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health

Ottawa, ON – Dr Peter Liu has been named as incoming scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH). The appointment is effective on April 3, 2006.

Dr Liu is currently the director of the Heart & Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Research, and Heart & Stroke/Polo Chair professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Toronto. He received a doctorate of medicine from the University of Toronto in 1978 and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Toronto, and at the Harvard Medical School in Boston.

His recent honours include the John Foerster Research Award (University of Manitoba, 2003), the Research Achievement Award (Canadian Cardiovascular Society, 2003), the Rick Gallop Award for Research Excellence (Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario/Canada, 2003), and the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons Research Lectureship in 2005.

He is also the author or coauthor of over 250 peer reviewed publications. His areas of research interest include the inflammatory and immune mechanisms of cardiovascular disease; the role of host response to cardiovascular injury in producing heart failure; and the translation of heart failure investigation from the bench to the bedside through clinical trials and health service research. He is a strong mentor and leads the TACTICS program (Tailored Advanced Training in Cardiovascular Science) which provides an interdisciplinary environment to study the pathogenesis of multi-factorial complex chronic disease.