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Ferhaan Ahmad, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine-Cardiovascular Medicine

Current Positions

  • Associate Professor of Internal Medicine-Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics
  • Associate Professor of Radiology
  • Director, Cardiovascular Genetics Program, Carver College of Medicine
  • Director, Cardiovascular Disease Fellowship Program, Internal Medicine

Education

  • MD, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • PhD, Cardiovascular Sciences, Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
  • Resident, Internal Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • Fellow, Cardiology and Critical Care Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
  • Fellow, American Heart Association-Bugher Foundation Center for Molecular Biology in the Cardiovascular System, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas
  • Fellow, Nuclear Cardiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
  • Fellow, Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Graduate Program Affiliations

Center, Program and Institute Affiliations

Research Interests

  • Dr. Ahmad is the Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Program at the University of Iowa, which brings together basic scientists at the Carver College of Medicine and clinicians at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) who are focusing on heritable cardiovascular disorders. He directs a laboratory conducting basic and translational research into the genetic and genomic mechanisms underlying inherited cardiovascular disorders, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, glycogen storage cardiomyopathy, inherited arrhythmias, and pulmonary hypertension. His laboratory uses a wide range of techniques in human and mouse genetics and genomics, and fosters crosstalk between clinical studies, human molecular genetic studies, animal modeling, basic cellular and molecular studies, and computational systems biology analyses. At the UIHC Cardiovascular Genetics Clinic, an interdisciplinary team evaluates, counsels, and treats patients with inherited cardiovascular disorders and their families.

Licenses & Certifications

  • Medical License, Iowa Board of Medicine
  • Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine
  • Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease
  • Diplomate, Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology
  • Certification, Internal Medicine, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
  • Certification, Cardiology, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada

Selected Publications

  • Wang, J., Wang, Y., Zou, Y., Sun, K., Wang, Z., Ding, H., Yuan, J., Wei, W., Hou, Q., Wang, H., Liu, X., Zhang, H., Ji, Y., Zhou, X., Sharma, R. K., Wang, D., Ahmad, F., Hui, R. & Song, L. (2014). Malignant effects of multiple rare variants in sarcomere genes on the prognosis of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. European Journal of Heart Failure 16 (9) 950-7. PMID: 25132132.
  • Ramratnam, M., Sharma, R. K., D'Auria, S., Lee, S. J., Wang, D., Huang, X. Y. & Ahmad, F. (2014). Transgenic knockdown of cardiac sodium/glucose cotransporter 1 (SGLT1) attenuates PRKAG2 cardiomyopathy, whereas transgenic overexpression of cardiac SGLT1 causes pathologic hypertrophy and dysfunction in mice. Journal of the American Heart Association 3 (4). PMID: 25092788.
  • Su, M., Wang, J., Kang, L., Wang, Y., Zou, Y., Feng, X., Wang, D., Ahmad, F., Zhou, X., Hui, R. & Song, L. (2014). Rare variants in genes encoding MuRF1 and MuRF2 are modifiers of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. International journal of molecular sciences 15 (6) 9302-13. PMID: 24865491.
  • Wang, Y., Wang, J., Zou, Y., Bao, J., Sun, K., Zhu, L., Tian, T., Shen, H., Zhou, X., Ahmad, F., Hui, R. & Song, L. (2014). Female sex is associated with worse prognosis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in China. PloS one 9 (7) e102969. PMID: 25047602.
  • Rogers, N. M., Yao, M., Sembrat, J., George, M. P., Knupp, H., Ross, M., Sharifi-Sanjani, M., Milosevic, J., St Croix, C., Rajkumar, R., Frid, M. G., Hunter, K. S., Mazzaro, L., Novelli, E. M., Stenmark, K. R., Gladwin, M. T., Ahmad, F., Champion, H. C. & Isenberg, J. S. (2013). Cellular, pharmacological, and biophysical evaluation of explanted lungs from a patient with sickle cell disease and severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulmonary circulation 3 (4) 936-51. PMID: 25006410.
  • Wang, Y., Wang, Z., Yang, Q., Zou, Y., Zhang, H., Yan, C., Feng, X., Chen, Y., Zhang, Y., Wang, J., Zhou, X., Ahmad, F., Hui, R. & Song, L. (2013). Autosomal recessive transmission of MYBPC3 mutation results in malignant phenotype of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. PloS one 8 (6) e67087. PMID: 23840593.
  • George, M. P., Yao, M., Ahmad, F., Sembrat, J., Rajkumar, R., Enrico, N., Stenmark, K., Gladwin, M., Champion, H. C. & Isenberg, J. S. (2013). End-stage sickle cell disease (SCD)-associated pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by abnormal cellular, mechanical and vaso-active profiles. Proceedings of the 5th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension.
  • Rajkumar, R., Shariff, A. I., Choi, J. I., Huang, G. T., Pandit, K. V., Sembrat, J. C., Ishizawar, D. C., Richards, T. J., Benos, P. V., Kaminski, N. & Ahmad, F. (2012). Integration of genome-wide microRNA and mRNA expression profiles in pulmonary arterial hypertension and pulmonary hypertension associated with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Thomas L Petty Aspen Lung Conference.
  • Tong, C., Ramratnam, M., Huang, T. W., Sembrat, J. & Ahmad, F. (2012). AMP-activated protein kinase downstream target, sodium-dependent glucose transporter SGLT1, is associated with impaired Cardioprotection during ischemia and reperfusion. Proceedings of the 20th Annual American Heart Association Fellows Research Day.