Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties (D.I.M.I.) - University of Genoa

Peter Libby, MD, a cardiovascular specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and holds the Mallinckrodt Professorship of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He directed Cardiovascular Medicine at BWH from 1998 – 2014. His areas of clinical expertise include general and preventive cardiology. His current major research focus is the role of inflammation in vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has a particular devotion to translate his basic laboratory studies to pilot and then large-scale clinical cardiovascular outcome trials. He instigated and helped to lead the large scale Canakinumab Anti-Inflammatory Thrombosis Outcomes Study (CANTOS) that provided the first clinical validation of benefit of targeting inflammation in human atherosclerosis. Dr. Libby has received numerous research awards, including the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American College of Cardiology (ACC), the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology, the Basic Research Prize of the American Heart Association, the Anitschkow Prize in Atherosclerosis Research of the European Atherosclerosis Society, the Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine, and the Benditt Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization. He was the recipient of the ACC Valentin Fuster Award for Innovation in Science for 2024. He was the Princess Lilian Foundation Visiting Professor in Belgium, and will deliver the Myant Lecture at Heart UK in 2025. Dr. Libby’s professional memberships include the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and honorary memberships in the British Atherosclerosis Society, the Japan Circulation Society, and the Japanese College of Cardiology. He has served as the President of the Association of University Cardiologists. He also has served as a volunteer for the American Heart Association, including chairman of several research committees and member of executive committees. He presided the ACC’s Research Peer Review Committee for two terms. He has frequently consulted for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, including membership on the Board of Scientific Councilors. He directed the DW Reynolds Cardiovascular Clinical Research Center and two cycles of Leducq Foundation Awards. He has received continuous funding from the US National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) for several decades. He served as the president of the International Atherosclerosis Society from 2022-2024. An author and lecturer on cardiovascular medicine and atherosclerosis, Dr. Libby has published extensively in medical journals including Circulation, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. He is an Editor of Braunwald’s Heart Disease, and was the Editor-in Chief of the current 12th Edition. Dr. Libby has also contributed chapters on the pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention of atherosclerosis to many editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. He has held numerous visiting professorships and delivered more than 150 major named or keynote lectures throughout the world. Dr. Libby earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego, and completed his training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital). He also holds an honorary MA degree from Harvard University, and Doctorat honoris causa from the Université de Lille, France, Université Laval in Québec, Canada, and Doctor Medicinæ Honoris Causa degree from Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.