Michael E. Cain, MD, was appointed vice president for health sciences at the University at Buffalo in 2011 and dean of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2006.

In his health sciences role, he leads the university’s five health sciences schools, which, in addition to medicine and biomedical sciences, include dental medicine, nursing, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, and public health and health professions.

He also serves as professor of medicine and professor of biomedical engineering.

Cain is the former director (1993 to 2006) of the Cardiovascular Division and Tobias and Hortense Lewin Professor of Medicine and professor of biomedical engineering (1999 to 2006) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

A graduate of Gettysburg College, Cain received his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. He completed his training in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital/Washington University School of Medicine.

His postgraduate training in cardiovascular diseases included appointments as a research fellow, clinical cardiology fellow and research instructor, all in the Cardiovascular Division at Washington University School of Medicine. He also served as a clinical research fellow in the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Cain joined the Washington University School of Medicine faculty in 1981 as an assistant professor of medicine. He served from 1981 to 1993 as director of the clinical cardiac electrophysiology laboratory at Barnes Hospital and was promoted to associate professor in 1987.

In 1993 he was promoted to professor of medicine and was named director of the Cardiovascular Division. He served as the Tobias and Hortense Lewin Professor of Medicine from 1994 to 2006 and as professor of biomedical engineering from 1999 until 2006.

An internationally recognized cardiovascular physician-scientist, Cain is a specialist in the area of abnormal heart rhythms. He is board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular diseases and in clinical cardiac electrophysiology and pacing.

Cain is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the Heart Rhythm Society. He is a past president of the Association of Professors of Cardiology and of the Heart Rhythm Society. He previously served as chairman of the board of directors of The Sarnoff Endowment for Cardiovascular Science.

A former associate editor of Circulation, Cain is a member of the editorial boards of the American Journal of Cardiology, the Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine and Heart Rhythm. He serves as guest editor for Circulation and Circulation: Arrhythmias and Electrophysiology.

Cain is the recipient of numerous awards including the Hans-Peter Kragenbuehl Memorial Award for Research in Cardiac Function from the International Academy of Cardiology, the American Heart Association’s Arthur E. Strauss Award and Outstanding Researcher of the Year, presented by the American Heart Association’s Missourian Award Executive Committee. He was also elected to membership in the Association of University Cardiologists.

Cain has held numerous invited professorships and has lectured widely in the U.S. and internationally. He has authored or co-authored more than 135 scientific publications, review articles and book chapters.

His National Institutes of Health-supported research program has focused on determining the mechanisms of life-threatening heart rhythm abnormalities that occur in the setting of heart attacks and other conditions that damage heart muscle cells. This new information is being used to better characterize and more accurately localize the abnormal heart tissue responsible for these abnormal heart rhythms and to improve the identification of patients at increased risk for sudden cardiac death.