Leslie Leinwand

Leslie Leinwand is a renowned muscle physiologist with broad expertise in the genetic underpinnings of heart and skeletal muscle defects. She is the chief scientific officer of the BioFrontiers Institute at the University of Colorado and established and co-directs the University of Colorado’s Cardiovascular Research Institute (CU-CVI), a collaborative group of physicians, molecular biologists and geneticists. The team works to integrate research and clinical applications, as well as initiate effective treatment programs and preventive therapies. Leslie’s research focuses on how cardiac and skeletal muscle adapt to stimuli, particularly the pathways involved in heart enlargement in response to exercise and disease. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Leslie has authored more than 350 scientific publications and founded three biotechnology companies: Myogen Inc., Hiberna, Inc. and MyoKardia, Inc. Myogen, which was a publicly traded company, was acquired by Gilead in 2006. MyoKardia, which is publicly traded, has a small molecule in clinical trials for inherited cardiomyopathy. Leslie received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her Ph.D. at Yale University and completed her postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University.