Joseph Loscalzo, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Loscalzo is interested in the vascular biology of endothelial cells and platelets and their role in atherosclerosis and thrombosis.  In particular, his laboratory has focused much of its efforts in recent years on the biology and pathobiology of nitric oxide in the vasculature using molecular, genetic, biochemical, cellular, and animal approaches.  A product of normal endothelial cells, nitric oxide is a deceptively simple heterodiatomic molecule derived from the oxidation of L-arginine that controls vascular smooth muscle tone, inhibits platelet activation, impairs leukocyte adhesion, and inhibits smooth muscle proliferation.  A deficiency of bioactive nitric oxide, caused either by endothelial dysfunction or by free radical inactivation, promotes thrombosis and atherogenesis.