Geoffrey Pitt, M.D., Ph.D.

Geoffrey Pitt is a cardiologist and physician-scientist whose research focuses on diseases caused by abnormal function of ion channels, specialized proteins in cells that control electrical activity.  His laboratory applies electrophysiology, biochemistry, structural biology, and animal models of human diseases to discern how aberrant ion channel function leads to diseases such as cardiac arrhythmias, neuropsychiatric disorders, ataxias, and epilepsy. Recent work has elucidated novel roles for voltage-gated ion channels in non-excitable tissue and during embryonic development.

Dr. Pitt is the Ida and Theo Rossi Distinguished Professor of Medicine and serves as the Director of Cardiovascular Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Pitt is also an attending physician at NewYork Presbyterian-Cornell Hospital. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before completing both internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship training at Stanford University Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Before joining the Weill Cornell Medical College faculty, Dr. Pitt was Professor of Medicine, with joint appointments in the departments of Neurobiology and Pharmacology at Duke University, where he was the Director and founder of the Ion Channel Research Unit.

Education and Training

• M.D., Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 1993
• B.A., Yale University 1984

Grants awarded

• Calmoudin Reglation of Na+ Channels in Neurons and Cardiomyocytes  awarded by National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute Principal Investigator 2016 - 2021
• Investigation of the Roles for CaV1.2 in Non-Excitable Tissue During Development  awarded by National Institute of Child Health & Human Development Principal Investigator 2016 -