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 Peter
M. Buttrick, MD, FACC
Section Chief, Division of Cardiology
Co-director, Center for Cardiovascular Research
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
1984–85 ACCF/Merck Fellow
“I encourage young fellows to apply for
awards like the ACCF/Merck Fellowship. Early career development
awards are critical steps for academic advancement.”
– Dr. Buttrick
A photo of the 1984–85 ACCF/Merck Fellows,
each paired with his mentor, still graces a wall in Dr. Peter
Buttrick’s office nearly 20 years after the day that
set him solidly on the road to a distinguished career in cardiovascular
research. “Like most of the awardees in the ’80s,
I was very, very young, and the award was my training grant,”
he says. “I remember the ceremony, what it felt like
to be there with my mentor, Dr. Jim Scheuer, and leaders of
the ACC. I feel like I’ve known those people forever
now, but I’m still impressed by the talent assembled
at ACCF/Merck functions.”
These days Dr. Buttrick is more often the mentor
himself. A number of young fellows work in his lab at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, where he has been the Cardiology
Section Chief for seven years. The life of a Section Chief
requires keeping a hand in both patient care and investigation.
Yet even a brief conversation with Dr. Buttrick reveals that
his passion is the seminal research he has done on recombinant
DNA techniques.
“I was always sure I wanted to go into
research, but if I hadn’t gotten the ACCF/Merck Award,
who knows? The fellowship comes at a time when there are a
lot of temptations for cardiologists to go into clinical work,
and that was especially true in the ’80s,” he
explains.
His application was the first he’d written
on his own, and its selection for an ACCF/Merck Award was
precisely the kind of confirmation that a budding young scientist
needs. A fellow at Montefiore Medical Center of Albert Einstein
College of Medicine in New York City, he wanted to determine
whether platelet responsiveness was altered in settings of
acute myocardial ischemia. “We were a few years ahead
of our time, and the field has since gone in a different direction,
but our instincts were right – it appears that platelets
play an important role in coronary ischemic syndromes.”
Dr. Buttrick’s fellowship took him in
a different direction, too. While still at Montefiore Medical
Center, he became intrigued by the new DNA technologies that
were emerging. In the years since, he and his colleagues have
been instrumental in developing new animal models for genetic
research that have advanced the field of recombinant DNA and
genetics, forming a foundation for the work of investigators
throughout the world.
Dr. Buttrick’s
Honors Include:
President, AHA Chicago Chapter
Association of University Cardiologists
NIH, regular study section member, RAP, CRRC
Chair, VA MERIT review study section
Halperin Award for Clinical Excellence
NIH Clinical Investigator Award
New York Heart Association Investigatorship
NIH FIRST Award
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