Rate My Professor Steven Fisher

Steven A. Fisher, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and Professor of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore. He serves as Program Director of the Training Program in Cardiac and Vascular Cell Biology, guiding educational policies, curriculum, trainee selection, progress reviews, and career development through a steering committee that includes faculty experts in biophotonics, molecular biology, functional genomics, and related training programs, with oversight from an external advisory committee of distinguished leaders in cardiovascular training. Fisher is also a Staff Physician at the Baltimore VA Medical Center. His postgraduate training encompasses a residency in Internal Medicine from 1986 to 1989 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease from 1990 to 1993 at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to his current role, he held a faculty appointment in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, at Case Western Reserve University.

Fisher's academic interests focus on cardiovascular physiology, including vascular smooth muscle phenotypic diversity and function, apoptosis during cardiovascular development, regulation of myosin phosphatase isoforms in smooth muscle relaxation, developmental remodeling of the cardiac outflow tract, and alternative splicing mechanisms governed by factors like myocardin in vascular cells. His laboratory explores gene therapy targeting vascular function and tissue-specific expression of regulatory proteins in mesenteric arteries. Prominent publications are "Vascular smooth muscle phenotypic diversity and function" (Physiological Genomics, 2010), "Apoptosis during cardiovascular development" (Circulation Research, 2000), "Developmental remodeling and shortening of the cardiac outflow tract involves myocyte programmed cell death" (Development, 1998), "Role of myosin phosphatase isoforms in cGMP-mediated smooth muscle relaxation" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2001), "Unzipping the role of myosin light chain phosphatase in smooth muscle cell relaxation" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2004), "Myocardin regulates exon usage in smooth muscle cells through induction of splicing factors" (Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2022), and "Tissue-specific expression of myosin phosphatase subunits and smooth muscle myosin phosphatase holoenzyme in rat mesenteric artery" (American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2022). He has received substantial research funding, such as a four-year $1,390,500 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in 2019 and a $307,000 award from the Department of Defense in 2016, alongside ongoing NIH and VA support. Elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2005, Fisher's scholarship has shaped advancements in vascular biology and cardiovascular therapeutics.