Christine Moravec, PhD

Christine Moravec, PhD, is a Staff Research Scientist and Director of Basic Research in the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure within the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Moravec holds secondary  appointments in the Department of Molecular Cardiology and the Center for Integrative Medicine and she is the Director of Basic Science Education for the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Her specialty interests include heart failure, cellular malfunction in cardiac dysfunction, drugs that may improve contractility of the failing heart, and remodeling of the failing heart using both surgical and psychophysiologic interventions. Dr. Moravec has a particular interest in mind-body medicine as it applies to cardiovascular disease, and is involved in several studies of psychophysiologic interventions designed to diminish overactivation of the autonomic nervous system in patients with cardiac disease. Dr. Moravec also runs the human heart tissue bank, which allows researchers at Cleveland Clinic to study the causes and possible treatments of human heart diseases.

Dr. Moravec attended John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious studies, followed by a Master of Science degree in biology. Dr. Moravec went on to pursue a PhD in regulatory biology from Cleveland State University, completing her research work for her dissertation at the Cleveland Clinic as a Graduate Student Fellow in the Department of Heart and Hypertension. She subsequently trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cleveland Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Biology, completing her specialty training in cellular physiology and electronmicroscopy. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Moravec was awarded a fellowship from the American Heart Association and also received the Tarazi Award for Cardiovascular Research at Cleveland Clinic.

Following postdoctoral training, Dr. Moravec moved on to the positions of Research Associate and Project Scientist within the Department of Cardiovascular Biology. Dr. Moravec joined the Professional Staff at Cleveland Clinic in 1993, in the Department of Molecular Cardiology, and she subsequently worked for eight years in the Center for Anesthesiology Research before joining the Kaufman Center for Heart Failure in 2002. Throughout her career, Dr. Moravec’s research interest has been understanding the cellular mechanisms of human heart failure and developing more therapeutic options for patients with heart failure.

In the past ten years, Dr. Moravec has been funded by both local and national American Heart Association (AHA) as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as she has studied the mechanisms of human heart failure.  In 1995, Dr. Moravec was named an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. Dr. Moravec has also served as a research mentor for both predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows who have obtained fellowship grants from either the AHA or NIH, and has hosted numerous undergraduate summer students who have been supported by the AHA. In 2009 she received the Kaiser Permanente Teaching Award for pre-clinical faculty from the first graduating class of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, and in 2012 she received the Excellence in Research Education Award from CCLCM.  She has also been recognized with the Outstanding Educator Award from the Lerner Research Institute at CCF.

In addition to her research work, Dr. Moravec holds academic appointments in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and in the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Sciences at Cleveland State University. She serves as Chair of Graduate Studies within the Lerner Research Institute  and coordinates the Heart Failure Research Seminars. Dr. Moravec also serves as immediate past president of the Board of Directors of the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, a regional science fair held each spring for 600 students from the Cleveland area.

Widely published in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Circulation, Circulation Research, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Dr. Moravec has authored numerous journal articles and abstracts describing work in her laboratory. She serves as a reviewer for scientific journals including Circulation, Circulation Research, the American Journal of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research, the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology and the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and is a member of local and national AHA and NIH peer-review study sections. She has recently completed a four year term on the NHLBI program project parent committee.

Dr. Moravec has been invited to present her research at national and international meetings and conferences. She is a member of the American Physiological Society, American Heart Association, Heart Failure Society of America, American Psychosomatic Association, American Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback and the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation.