2024 Thomas Smith Memorial Lecture - Jil C. Tardiff, MD, PhD, FAHA

 

Jil Tardiff attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a Regents Scholar and graduated with honors from the department of genetics. She completed her medical and doctoral degrees at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, followed by an internal medicine residency and cardiovascular fellowship as a Markey Fellow at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

Tardiff is a professor of biomedical engineering, medicine, and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of Arizona and holds the Steven M. Gootter Endowed Chair for the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death. She has practiced cardiology for over 25 years and is the director of the Banner - University Medical Center Tucson Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic.

Tardiff’s primary expertise is in the molecular pathogenesis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), and she has developed an integrative platform encompassing computational approaches coupled to high resolution spectroscopy, single myocyte physiology and transgenic murine models of genetic cardiomyopathies to delineate novel targetable pathways to help manage this complex disorder. More recently, her group has focused on the rational design of novel disease modulators based on high resolution structure and protein dynamics and the role of myofilament Ca2+ exchange kinetics in the progression of genetic HCM and dilated cardiomyopathy. Her program has been continuously funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 2001.

Her extramural service includes multiple national leadership positions at the American Heart Association and the International Society for Heart Research. She has served as chair of several scientific meetings, including AHA Basic Cardiovascular Sciences and Keystone and Gordon research conferences.

Tardiff is an associate editor of Circulation Research and has served on numerous NIH study sections, including chartered memberships on both Cardiac Contractility and Heart Failure and Myocardial Ischemia and Metabolism (NHLBI).