Ethan David Cohen, Ph.D.

Professional Background

Dr. Cohen graduated cum laud from Lebanon Valley College before completing both his graduate and postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Cohen's research is largely focused on understanding how intercellular signaling directs cardiac morphogenesis and how defect in this signaling contribute to human disease. Congenital heart defects are present in approximately 1% of newborn babies, 10% of stillborn fetuses and responsible for nearly 6% of deaths among children under one year of age. Furthermore heart disease is the leading cause of death among adults in the Western world. A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying cardiac development will aid in the discovery of new methods to detect and treat congenital heart defects. Moreover since aberrant signaling by embryonic pathways is often associated with disease, this same information will also aid in the discovery of novel treatments for adult cardiomyopathy. Many of these new treatments are likely to involve using stem/progenitor cells to replace damaged cardiac tissues. However our ability to differentiate multi-potent stem cells into functional cardiomyocytes is still limited and further insight into the molecular cues that guide cardiac development will be necessary to reach the full potential of regenerative medicine.

Research