Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta have appointed Michael Davis, PhD, as director of the Center for Cardiovascular Biology (CCB) in the Emory + Children’s Pediatric Research Center.

Davis is currently associate professor of biomedical engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He has a joint appointment in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, in Emory University School of Medicine.

Davis’ research is focused on bioengineering and stem cell approaches to treating adult and pediatric heart disease. He has several federally funded research grants, three patents, and more than 40 published articles.

“Mike Davis is an excellent addition to our leadership team in the Pediatric Research Center, and his appointment is an example of the tremendous opportunities presented by collaboration among our research partners, says Paul Spearman, MD, chief research officer at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Nahmias-Schinazi Research Professor and vice chair for research in Emory’s Department of Pediatrics. "The Center for Cardiovascular Biology under Mike's leadership will link innovative basic and translational research to the existing outstanding clinical care and clinical research within the Sibley Heart Center."

“Mike’s appointment as Director of the CCB recognizes his current collaboration with other funded local investigators, and offers us the potential to recruit more investigators to join our efforts here,” says Robert M. Campbell, MD, chief of cardiac surgery in the Sibley Heart Center at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

After graduating from Rutgers University, Davis earned his PhD in pharmacology at Emory University. He completed postdoctoral research in tissue engineering at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was recruited to Emory and Georgia Tech in 2006.

In 2011 Davis was named an American Heart Association Fellow.