Scientific Advisors
Richard H. Karas, MD, PhD
Dr. Karas is Professor and Vice Chairman of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine. He serves as Director of the Preventative Cardiology Center, Co-Director of the Women’s Heart Center and Associate Director of the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute. Dr. Karas' research focuses on the molecular pathways that mediate estrogen's direct effects on vascular cells. Dr. Karas also maintains an active interest in clinically-based studies focused on the regulation of vasomotor tone and on the effects of lipid lowering interventions and adverse events related to lipid-altering interventions.
Eliot J. Brinton, MD FAHA, FNLA
Dr. Brinton is Director of the Metabolism Section of Cardiovascular Genetics and Associate Professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, where he is also the Director of the LDL Apheresis Center. He is also the Immediate-Past President of the Pacific Lipid Association and President of the Utah Atherosclerosis Society, and he is a founding board member of both the National Lipid Association and of the American Board of Clinical Lipidology. Dr. Brinton’s areas of special clinical expertise include dyslipidemia and atheroprevention, diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance, obesity, estrogen replacement, and erectile dysfunction. His primary research focus is on mechanisms of human HDL metabolism in vivo and in vitro, including the effects of diet, exercise, estrogen, and insulin resistance.
Richard J. Kovacs, MD
Dr. Kovacs is the Clinical Director of the Krannert Institute of Cardiology at the Indiana University Medical School and a Professor of Clinical Medicine. His is responsible for coordination of care across all hospitals serviced by the Krannert Institute. He is the Medical Director of the Clarian/Methodist Chest Pain Center, a member of the Indiana University Hospital Operations Team and the Methodist Facility Leadership Committee. He also serves as Physician Advisor to the Cardiac Diagnostics Department at Clarian West Hospital, is Vice-Chairman of the Cardiovascular Sub-Section at Clarian North Hospital, and serves as Acting Chief of the Cardiology Service at Wishard Memorial Hospital. Dr. Kovacs serves on the Steering Committee of the Board of Governors for the American College of Cardiology and serves on the Cardiac Safety Research Consortium Advisory Committee.
David Orloff, MD
Dr. Orloff is the Medical Director at Medpace, Inc., a contract research organization based in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a focus in the metabolism/diabetes/cardiovascular disease area. From 2000-2006, he was the Director of the Division of Metabolism and Endocrinology Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where he was in charge of FDA’s regulatory oversight of new drugs for the treatment of dyslipidemia, diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, thyroid disease, growth disorders, and inborn errors of metabolism, in addition to the panoply of other indications in endocrinology and metabolic disease. Dr. Orloff’s clinical work at NIH over the past many years has been in dyslipidemia and cardiovascular disease prevention. He was a consultant to the National Cholesterol Education Program’s Adult Treatment Panel III.