Rate My Professor Christie Ballantyne

Christie Mitchell Ballantyne, M.D., is the Section Chief of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Research at Baylor College of Medicine, where he holds professorships in Medicine-Cardiology, Molecular and Human Genetics, and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics. He directs the Center for Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention, the Maria and Alando J. Ballantyne, M.D. Atherosclerosis Clinical Research Laboratory, and co-directs the Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic, while holding the J. S. Abercrombie Chair in Atherosclerosis and Lipoprotein Research. Ballantyne earned his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1977 and his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1982. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1985, a clinical fellowship in cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine in 1987, and a research fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in 1989. Board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and clinical lipidology, his career focuses on advancing preventive cardiology and cardiometabolic disease management.

Ballantyne's clinical and translational research emphasizes the prevention of cardiometabolic disease through pharmacological studies on lipid-lowering therapies, atherosclerosis progression, inflammation, leukocyte-endothelial adhesion molecules, and biomarkers for cardiovascular risk. With over 1,000 publications, key contributions include "Cardiovascular risk reduction with icosapent ethyl for hypertriglyceridemia" (New England Journal of Medicine, 2019), "Antiinflammatory therapy with canakinumab for atherosclerotic disease" (New England Journal of Medicine, 2017), "Safety and efficacy of bempedoic acid to reduce LDL cholesterol" (New England Journal of Medicine, 2019), and the STELLAR Trial on statin efficacy (American Journal of Cardiology, 2003). Continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1988, his work has facilitated FDA approvals for cardiovascular biomarkers and novel lipid therapies. He serves on the editorial boards of Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Honors include the 2025 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2019 Baylor College of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Excellence in Research Award, presidency of the National Lipid Association in 2024, fellowships in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Clinical Investigation, and Association of American Physicians, and designation as a Highly Cited Researcher from 2017 to 2025.