Associate Chair of Research, Fadi N. Salloum, PhD, FAHA

Dr. SalloumA native of Beirut, Lebanon, Dr. Salloum earned his BS in Biology from the American University of Beirut in 1996. He then immigrated to the United States in 1998 to pursue his Doctorate in Physiology from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine followed by postdoctoral training in Molecular Cardiology in 2008. He was appointed as Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) in 2009, promoted to Associate Professor of Medicine in 2015, awarded Tenure and appointed as Assistant Chair for Research for the Department of Internal Medicine in 2018, and promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2020. Dr. Salloum also holds an affiliate appointment in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics. He was named the inaugural Natalie N. and John R. Congdon Sr. Endowed Chair, VCU Pauley Heart Center in 2018 and appointed as the Associate Chair for Research for the Department of Internal Medicine in 2020.

Dr. Salloum’s investigative skills were recognized very early in his career with the American Heart Association Young Investigator Award; the Elizabeth Fries Young Investigator Award, Clinical Honorable Mention; and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Excellence in Science Award. In 2016, Dr. Salloum received the Distinguished Research Award from the Department of Internal Medicine in recognition of meritorious research accomplishments. In 2020, Dr. Salloum received the Excellence in Scholarship & Research Award from the Department of Internal Medicine.

As a talented and inspiring educator, he has participated in several courses offered to physiology graduate students, dental students, as well as physiology labs to first year medical students. In 2014, he assumed the position of course director of PHIS 512: “Cardiac Function in Health and Disease”, which is offered by the Department of Physiology & Biophysics to graduate students. This course is distinguished by its clinical focus on a variety of cardiac diseases. He has also mentored numerous undergraduate and graduate students (Masters/PhD and MD-PhD) as well as cardiology fellow trainees and postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Salloum was honored with the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 2016.

Dr. Salloum’s current research is focused on cardiac injury, inflammation and failure. His major interest is developing novel pharmacologic strategies to combat adverse cardiac remodeling that leads to heart failure. His research is directed towards studying the role of novel small molecules, which include hydrogen sulfide (H2S) donors, relaxin receptor agonists as well as microRNAs (miRs) in cardiac health and disease. As a principal investigator, Dr. Salloum is currently funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Salloum was previously funded by grants from the American Heart Association (2010 – 2016) and Industry (Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2013 – 2018).

Dr. Salloum serves as Co-Chair for one of the American Heart Association’s Cardiac Biology Regulation Study Groups and ad hoc Reviewer for Strategically Focused Research Network on Heart Failure, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and international funding organizations for cardiovascular research. Due to all his service contributions to his department and the scientific community, Dr. Salloum was awarded the Excellence in Professional Service Award in 2018 from the Department of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Salloum is a Fellow of the American Heart Association - Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences; Fellow of the American Physiological Society – Cardiovascular Section and a member of the International Society for Heart Research; and past member of the American Society of Echocardiography.

He has authored or co-authored more than 100 articles that have been published in high quality peer-reviewed biomedical journals such as Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Cardiovascular Research, European Journal of Heart Failure, and authored or co-authored 3 book chapters.

Dr. Salloum was appointed to the Editorial Board of PLoS One as an Academic Editor in 2011, the Editorial Board of Scientifica in 2012, the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Cardiology in 2014, the Editorial Board of Experimental Physiology in 2017 and joined the Editorial Board of Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology & Therapeutics in 2019. Dr. Salloum has served as reviewer for >40 national and international biomedical journals, which include: Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation, European Heart Journal, Circulation Research, Circulation – Heart Failure, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, American Journal of Physiology, European Journal of Heart Failure, among others.

For a Complete List of Published Work and Citations:


Contact Information
Phone: (804) 827-2340
Email: fadi.salloum@vcuhealth.org