Kent Thornburg

kent thornburg
E-mail:
Phone: 503-494-2382

Current Appointments
Dr. Thornburg holds the M. Lowell Edwards Chair in the Department of Medicine at the Oregon Health & Science University. He is Director of the Heart Research Center and Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Besides Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Thornburg has appointments in the Departments of Medicine, Physiology & Pharmacology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Medical Informatics/Clinical Epidemiology and in the Heart Research Center.

Research Interests
Dr. Thornburg leads a team of scientists who are studying the how mechanical forces alter gene expression in the developing embryo heart. His models are designed to study the roles of shear and wall stresses as signals to developing cardiac structures. His laboratory team also studies fetal heart development and the roles of growth factors and signaling molecules in programming the immature heart and coronary arteries for lifelong vulnerability for disease.

Research Area(s)
Cardiovascular Research

Selected Publications

  • DeGroff CG, Thornburg BL, Pentecost JO, Thornburg KL, Gharib M, Sahn DJ, Baptista A. Flow in the early embryonic human heart. Pediatr Cardiol. 24(4):375-80. 2003.
  • Pentecost JO, Silva,C, Pescitelli M, Thornburg K. Modeling cardiogenesis: the challenges and promises of 3D reconstruction. in Schatten GP: Current Topics in Developmental Biology. Elsevier Science.56:5. Oct 2003.
  • Jonker, SS, Davis LE, van der Bilt J, Hadder B, Hohimer AR, Giraud GD, Thornburg KL. Anaemia stimulates aquaporin 1 expression in the fetal sheep heart. J Exper Physiol, 88(6):691-8, 2003
  • Sundgren NC, Giraud GD, Schultz JM, Lasarev MR, Stork PJ, Thornburg KL. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase and phosphoinositol 3-kinase mediate IGF-1 induced proliferation of fetal sheep cardiomyocytes. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 285(6):R1481-9 Dec. 2003.
  • Giraud GD, Louey S, Jonker S, Schultz J, Thornburg KL. Cortisol stimulates cell cycle activity in the cardiomyocyte of the sheep fetus. Endocrinology. 147(8):3643-9, 2006.