Donald M. Bers, University of California, USA
Professor Donald M. Bers made extraordinary achievements on the cellular and molecular factors that regulate heart excitation and contraction. Much of his scientific work has focused on calcium regulation in the heart, but this includes fundamental quantitative mechanistic characterization of ion transporters and channels, electrophysiology, excitation-contraction coupling, myofilament activation, regulation of mitochondrial calcium and energetics, cellular kinase signaling, systolic dysfunction and arrhythmogenesis in hypertrophy and heart failure, always with an eye toward both integrative aspects of cardiac function with clinical relevance and identification of novel therapeutic targets in cardiovascular disease.