U-CARS 2025 Keynote Speaker:
Michael R. Bristow, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Director, Pharmacogenomics, University of Colorado Cardiovascular Institute
Michael R. Bristow received his MD and PhD in pharmacology in 1970 and 1971 from the University of Illinois Chicago MD/PhD Program. He completed an NIH postdoctoral fellowship in pharmacology at the University of Illinois, and received his medical training at Stanford University. He remained at Stanford to complete a fellowship in cardiology, and joined the Cardiology faculty in 1979. Dr. Bristow moved to the University of Utah in 1984, and in 1985 he co-founded the first multi-hospital heart transplant program in the U.S [Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals (U.T.A.H.) Cardiac Transplant Program], which has been functioning in a uniquely collaborative way since that time.
Dr. Bristow has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed papers and chapters on heart failure, cardiac transplantation, pharmacogenomics and other cardiovascular topics. He has received many academic and industry honors, including the Therapeutics Frontiers Award by the American college of Clinical Pharmacy (1993), the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Clinical Trial Exceptional Service Award (2008), the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Heart Failure Society of America (2008), Scientist of the Year by the Colorado Chapter of the ARCS Foundation (2008), University of Illinois Alumni Achievement Award, (2009) and the Distinguished Scientist Award (Translational Domain) by the American College of Cardiology (2014).
Dr. Bristow is known for leading the bench-to-bedside beta blocker "revolution" in heart failure therapy, https://mediaspace.utah.edu/playlist/dedicated/1_ksz2170n/1_6yiajq2l. He has founded or co-founded three biotechnology companies based on his research, which have developed pharmacological therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension and atrial fibrillation in heart failure.