Dr. Tarek Helmy is the Division Chief of Cardiology and a Professor of Cardiology. He completed his interventional fellowship training from New England Medical Center, Tufts University. He has been on the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and Saint Louis School of Medicine. His interests include complex coronary intervention, CTO and structural heart disease. His research interests are in coronary physiology.

Dr. Birnbaum graduated from the Hadassah Medical School in 1983. He works in Houston, TX and 3 other locations and specializes in Cardiovascular Disease and Internal Medicine. Dr. Birnbaum is affiliated with Houston Methodist Hospital and Harris Health System Ben Taub Hospital.

The Experimental Cardiology Laboratory is engaged in studying the pathophysiology and pharmacotherapy of congestive heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury and diabetes induced cardiomyopathy. Our objective is to understand the molecular and subcellular basis of cardiac dysfunction in experimental animals with or without various drug treatments. Furthermore, we wish to identify new targets for discovering improved therapies for treatment of heart disease. In particular, we are focussed to examine renin-angiotensin system, sympathetic nervous system, oxidative stress, intracellular Ca2+-overload and subcellular remodeling for the transition of cardiac adaptation (hypertrophy and dilation) to maladepletion (cardiac dysfunction and heart failure).