Morris Karmazyn

Dr. Karmazyn MSc, PhD, FIACS is a retired Professor of Pharmacology who has held faculty positions at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. He obtained his Master’s and PhD degrees from McGill University in Montreal followed by postdoctoral work at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Karmazyn also trained as a Visiting Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. James R Neely at the Weis Research Center of the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania. Professor Karmazyn has worked for nearly 40 years on the problem of cardiac ischemia and reperfusion injury and more recently in the field of myocardial remodeling and heart failure. While his research involved numerous areas of interest including eicosanoids, adipokines as well as natural products such as ginseng he and his lab are likely best known for their work on the involvement of the sodium hydrogen exchanger isoform 1 (NHE-1) as a major contributor to various cardiac pathologies including ischemic and reperfusion injury as well as myocardial remodeling and heart failure. Karmazyn’s laboratory was the first to propose and demonstrate the potentially important role of NHE-1 in cardiac pathology, an observation that has been confirmed by numerous academic and industrial laboratories and has led to the development of NHE-1-specific pharmacological inhibitors. His research has led to the publication of more than 220 peer-reviewed papers with an H index of 64 (Google Scholar 2021) in addition to numerous book chapters. He has also edited or co-edited 5 books dealing with cardiac pathologies. Karmazyn’s research has been continually funded throughout his independent career by both the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Professor Karmazyn has been the recipient of numerous research awards including a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario Career Investigator Award (1990-2003), Merck Frosst Award of the Pharmacological Society of Canada (1990), Award of Excellence from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario (1993) Vincenzo Panagia Award from the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St Boniface Hospital Research Center (2001), Fellow (elected) of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, Howard E Morgan Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (2016) and in 2004 he was awarded a Canada Research Chair in Experimental Cardiology (until 2018). He has presented more than 200 Invited Lectures.

Professor Karmazyn has served on the Editorial Boards of numerous journals and most recently (2019) served as Guest Editor for a focused issue of Molecules. He has served regularly on review panels of several national granting agencies and was also a member of NIH special competition committees. He has also consulted for several pharmaceutical companies.

Although Professor Karmazyn has retired from Academic responsibilities he continues to publish, consult, and review for granting agencies and journals.