Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD

Director
Cardiovascular Research Institute
School of Medicine
Professor
Department of Medicine
School of Medicine

Executive Assistant:
Olga Zimin
216.844.5191
olga.zimin@uhhospitals.org

Research Information

Research Interests

Dr. Rajagopalan completed clinical and research fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and vascular biology at the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Rajagopalan is among an elite group of physician investigators whose work has help transform perceptions and facilitate understanding of the global impact of chronic diseases including diabetes. He has additionally made seminal contributions towards the development of next generation therapeutic modalities for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and is a leading authority in advancing newer and innovative non-invasive approaches for the diagnosis of complex cardiovascular disorders.

Dr. Rajagopalan’s laboratory has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Rajagopalan is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI), the Association of University Cardiologists (AUC) and the Association of Professors of Cardiology (APC). Additional honors include the William Keating Award from the American College of Cardiology, the Charles Dana Award and being voted amongst the Best Doctors in America.

Dr. Rajagopalan has published over than 250 original peer reviewed research publications in journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Circulation Research, in addition to more than 300 reviews, book chapters and abstracts. He has served as an editor for at least two textbooks and several monographs on vascular disease and atherosclerosis.

External Appointments

Division Chief, Cardiovascular Medicine
University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

Publications

A few key publications:

Al-Kindi S, Paneni F, Brook RD, Rajagopalan S. Eur Heart J. Residual environmental risk in patients with cardiovascular disease: an overlooked paradigm. 2023 Jul 11:ehad412. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehad412. PMID: 37431798

Rajagopalan S, Landrigan PJ. Pollution and the Heart. N Engl J Med. 2021 Nov 11;385(20):1881-1892. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra2030281. PMID: 34758254.

Münzel T, Sørensen M, Lelieveld J, Hahad O, Al-Kindi S, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Giles-Corti B, Daiber A, Rajagopalan S. Heart healthy cities: genetics loads the gun but the environment pulls the trigger. Eur Heart J. 2021 Jul 1;42(25):2422-2438. doi: 10.1093/eurheartj/ehab235. PMID: 34005032.

Palanivel R, Vinayachandran V, Biswal S, Deiuliis JA, Padmanabhan R, Park B, Gangwar RS, Durieux JC, Ebreo Cara EA, Das L, Bevan G, Fayad ZA, Tawakol A, Jain MK, Rao S, Rajagopalan S. Exposure to Air Pollution Disrupts Circadian Rhythm through Alterations in Chromatin Dynamics. iScience. 2020 Oct 24;23(11):101728. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101728. PMID: 33241196

Rajagopalan S, Park B, Palanivel R, Vinayachandran V, Deiuliis JA, Gangwar RS, Das LM, Yin J, Choi Y, Al-Kindi S, Jain MK, Hansen KD, Biswal S. J Metabolic effects of air pollution exposure and reversibility. Clin Invest. 2020 Nov 2;130(11):6034-6040. doi: 10.1172/JCI137315. PMID. 32780721

View a full list of Dr. Rajagopalan's publications on PubMed here: Sanjay Rajagopalan, Pubmed

 

Education

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)
University of Madras, India
1988

Residencies, Internships and Fellowships

Residency in Internal Medicine
Erie County Medical Center
1994
Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease
Emory University Hospital
1998
Research Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine
Cornell University
2002
Fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
2004

Additional Information

  • 1990-1994: Assistant Instructor, Department of Internal Medicine, SUNY at Buffalo
  • 1994: Chief Medical Resident, VA Medical Center, SUNY at Buffalo.
  • 1994-1998: Instructor, Department of Internal Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
  • 1998-2003: Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • 2001-2003:  Co-Director, Vascular Medicine Training Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • 2003-2006: Director Cardiovascular MR and CT Imaging, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York
  • 2006-2013:Professor of Medicine (With Tenure), the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2006-2013: Director of Vascular Medicine, Co-Director CT and MR Imaging Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
  • 2006-2013: Associate Director, Davis Heart Lung Research Institute, Columbus, OH
  • 2013-2015:Head, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
  • 2013-2016: Melvin Sharoky Endowed Professorship, University of Maryland School of Medicine
  • 2016: Asst. Chair, Translational Research, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine