Leader in blood vessel biology and disease is appointed as Alfred Gilman Professor

William C. Sessa, Ph.D., a leading researcher on blood vessel function and vascular disease, has been designated as the Alfred Gilman Professor of Pharmacology.

Sessa’s research focuses on the vascular endothelium, cells that line all blood vessels and form the largest endocrine organ in the human body.

His laboratory is investigating the factors, including genes, that can cause dysregulation of the endothelium and contribute to cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, and other diseases. He is also using proteomics techniques to discover novel proteins that may regulate blood vessel function.

Sessa earned his Ph.D. at New York Medical College and was a postdoctoral fellow and senior scientist at the William Harvey Research Institute at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London.

Sessa joined the Yale faculty in 1993 as an assistant professor of pharmacology, and has been a full professor at the School of Medicine since 1999. He serves as director of the interdepartmental Vascular Biology and Therapeutics Program, and as vice chair of the Department of Pharmacology.

Sessa has authored or co-authored more than 200 research articles or papers.

His numerous honors include the American Heart Association’s Established Investigator Award; the Young Alumnus Award from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences; the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics’ John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology; a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health; the Robert M. Berne Distinguished Lectureship from the American Physiological Society; and the William Harvey Medal.