Biographical Sketch
Stephen J. Nicholls, MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery), PhD, is Medical Director of Intravascular Ultrasound and Angiography Core Laboratories at Cleveland Clinic and Clinical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention. Dr. Nicholls is also Associate Director of the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research and Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He holds dual faculty appointments in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and the Department of Cell Biology in the Learner Research Institute.
Dr. Nicholls received his medical degree from the University of Adelaide in Australia. Following residency in internal medicine at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, he completed a clinical fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at John Hunter Hospital. He subsequently undertook his doctoral studies, focusing on the protective properties of high-density lipoproteins (HDL or “good cholesterol”) at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney. Following this training, Dr. Nicholls completed a postdoctoral fellowship in plaque imaging at Cleveland Clinic prior to his faculty appointment.
He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Heart Association. He received the Helen May Davies Research Award from the National Heart Foundation of Australia, the Young Investigator Award at the 13th International Symposium on Atherosclerosis and was a finalist for the Samuel A. Levine Clinical Young Investigator Award at the 2005 Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association.
He has authored more than 150 original manuscripts, meeting abstracts and book chapters. His current research interests include the functional properties of HDL, the role of inflammation and oxidative stress in atherogenesis and the development of new imaging modalities to assess factors that influence the natural history of atherosclerosis. He plays a lead role in clinical trials that employ intravascular ultrasound to investigate the impact of novel anti-atherosclerotic therapies.
Specialty Interests
preventive cardiology, cardiovascular imaging
Industry Relationships
Cleveland Clinic physicians and scientists may collaborate
with the pharmaceutical or medical device industries
to help develop medical breakthroughs or provide
medical education about recent trends. The
collaborations are reviewed as part of the Cleveland
Clinic’s procedures. The Cleveland Clinic publicly
discloses payments to its physicians and scientists
for speaking and consulting of
$5,000 or more per year, and any equity, royalties,
and fiduciary relationships in companies with which
they collaborate. In publicly disclosing this
information, the Cleveland Clinic tries to provide
information as accurately as possible about its
doctors’ connections with industry and those of their
immediate family members. As of 8/5/2008, Dr.
Nicholls has reported the financial relationships
with the companies listed below. Patients should feel
free to contact their doctor about any of the
relationships and how the relationships are overseen
by the Cleveland Clinic. To learn more about the
Cleveland Clinic’s policies on collaborations with
industry and innovation management, go to
our Integrity in Innovation page.
Consulting. Dr. Nicholls receives fees of $5,000 or more per year as a paid consultant or speaker for the following companies:
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP
Roche
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi-Aventis US Inc.
