EP 46: Dr Eric Adler on Mission, Mentorship & Synergy Between Research & Patient Care

Parallax by Ankur Kalra

According to Dr Eric Adler, at the core of all impactful research is a powerful narrative that makes us reflect on the human condition. In 2006, when the ground-breaking discovery was made that specialized cells can be turned into stem cells, Dr Eric Adler was thinking about how he could create a synergy between his passion for clinical work and his determination to ask compelling questions in research. Dr Adler embarked on this question when a patient died unexpectedly and Dr Stacey Clegg, a fellow working with Dr Adler, grew the cells and discovered that the patient suffered from a devastating multisystemic disorder called Danon disease. Today the new gene therapy that his team developed is on clinical trial. Parallax’s guest this week is Dr Eric David Adler, Medical director of heart transplant and mechanical circulatory support at UC San Diego Health. In this in-depth episode, Ankur and Eric reflect on the decisions that had to be made in the early stages of their career. Eric shares the lessons he took away from the mentorship of Dr Joseph Loscalzo, Dr Valentin Fuster and many others. Eric talks about his research, clinical work and the future of gene therapy. What are the pivotal moments of the journey of Eric Adler? What keeps him motivated? How can he balance between patient care and research? What is his message to our listeners at the beginning of their career? Questions and comments can be sent to “[e-mail]” and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode. Guest @EricAdler17, hosted by @AnkurKalraMD. Produced by @RadcliffeCARDIO. Brought to you by Edwards: www.edwardstavr.com