2026 3CPR Mid-Career Award and Lecturer – Sudarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD, FAHA

Sudarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD, FAHA

Duke University School of Medicine
Durham, North Carolina

Sudarshan Rajagopal, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology and co-director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center at Duke University School of Medicine. The major goal of his research is to discover and characterize basic receptor regulatory mechanisms whose dysfunction contributes to cardiovascular and inflammatory disease, such as pulmonary hypertension.

As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, Rajagopal focused his research on “biased agonism,” a novel paradigm for G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signaling in which receptors can signal through distinct pathways depending on the ligand that binds to them. Biased agonism has now become a central paradigm for understanding GPCR signaling. Since starting his independent lab, his research group has made important discoveries on the fundamental mechanisms underlying GPCR signaling and biased agonism and its physiological impact.

In addition, Rajagopal has an active translational and clinical research portfolio, with a focus on novel imaging approaches in pulmonary hypertension, including the development of hyperpolarized Xenon MRI. At the Duke Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center, he works with multiple physicians and nurse clinicians to manage patients across the spectrum of pulmonary hypertension. Within the American Heart Association’s Council on Cardiopulmonary, Critical Care, Perioperative and Resuscitation (3CPR), Rajagopal has served in multiple roles, including as chair of the Membership and Communications Committee and a member of the Scientific Sessions program committee.