The UCLA Cardiovascular Research Laboratory

James N. Weiss, M.D., Director
Kenneth D. Philipson, Ph.D., Associate Director
Enrico Stefani, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Director

In 1957, the Greater Los Angeles American Heart Association established the first local privately supported research laboratory in the United States. An agreement with UCLA provided space at the Medical Center, with the American Heart Association affiliate providing all the operational funding. Dr. Wilfred F.H. Mommaerts, from Case Western Reserve University, was recruited as the Laboratory's first Director. Dr. Mommaerts, trained by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, was an internationally recognized muscle physiologist. In the late 1950's muscle research focused mostly on skeletal muscle. Recognizing, however, that his sponsor was the American Heart Association, Dr. Mommaerts recruited a young investigator from the University of Washington named Allan Brady, whose interests lay in cardiac muscle mechanics. A few years later, he persuaded Glenn Langer, then at Columbia P & S, to head west. With Dr. Langer's expertise in cardiac excitation-contraction coupling, the cardiac emphasis grew, drawing on basic mechanisms discovered in skeletal muscle and testing their applicability to cardiac function. During this period, Dr. Langer and Dr. Brady served as Associate Directors for what had become known as the "Heart Lab" at UCLA. By the time Dr. Langer succeeded Dr. Mommaerts as Director in 1986, the research had become totally cardiac. The Heart Lab had evolved as one of the foremost labs in the world in the multidisciplinary study of the heart. By the time Dr. Langer retired in 1997, the Heart Lab had become a major training center for cardiovascular scientists, being the "home" of many of the foremost cardiac investigators at some time during their careers. The current Director is Dr. James Weiss, and Associate Directors, Dr. Kenneth Philipson and Dr. Enrico Stefani.