Arnold Martin Katz (July 30, 1932 – January 25, 2016) was an American
medical doctor
A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...
, professor of
cardiology
Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...
, medical researcher, and author of medical textbooks and research articles.
Career
Arnold Katz was born in
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, Illinois. His mother was a piano teacher. His father,
Louis N. Katz M.D. was a cardiologist, winner of the
Lasker Award
In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...
and president of the
American Physiological Society
The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology, or other health professions. Its mission is to support research ...
and
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...
. Katz attended the University of Chicago and earned a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in 1952.
He graduated as a medical doctor from
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...
in 1956, and did his medical internship at the
Massachusetts General Hospital
Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...
, where he also served as medical assistant resident in 1959. He spent 1957-1958 studying protein chemistry in the Laboratory of
Christian B. Anfinsen
Christian Boehmer Anfinsen Jr. (March 26, 1916 – May 14, 1995) was an American biochemist. He shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stanford Moore and William Howard Stein for work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the co ...
at the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
in Bethesda.
Katz later worked in medical research at the
University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
at Los Angeles and the
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in New York, becoming an established investigator of the
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...
. In 1969 Katz became the first Philip J. and Harriet L. Goodhart Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City, New York, United States. The school is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sina ...
. In 1977 he moved to the
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
The University of Connecticut School of Medicine is a medical school located in Farmington, Connecticut. It was founded in 1961, enrolled students in 1968, and graduated its first class in 1972.
The school is part of UConn Health, along with t ...
to become the first chief of cardiology. Since his retirement in 1998 he has been acting as visiting professor of Medicine and Physiology at
Dartmouth Medical School
The Geisel School of Medicine is the medical school of Dartmouth College located in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is one of the sev ...
. In 2008 he was also appointed Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Katz published over 400 articles and edited or co-edited more than 15 books.
His single-authored text Physiology of the Heart is now in its 5th edition. Katz is the recipient of various awards including the 1975
Humboldt Prize
The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of ...
, the Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association, the Peter Harris Distinguished Scientist Award of the
International Society for Heart Research, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Heart Failure Society of America,
and the Medal of Merit of the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences.
The American Heart Association renamed its young investigator award for basic research the Louis N. and Arnold M. Katz Prize in his honour.
Among his many contributions, Katz was the first to describe the protein
Phospholamban
Phospholamban, also known as PLN or PLB, is a micropeptide protein that in humans is encoded by the ''PLN'' gene. Phospholamban is a 52-amino acid integral membrane protein that regulates the calcium (Ca2+) pump in cardiac muscle cells.
Func ...
.
Katz passed away at his home in
Norwich, Vermont
Norwich is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,612 at the 2020 census. Home to some of the state of Vermont's wealthiest residents, the municipality is a commuter town for nearby Hanover, New Hampshire acros ...
on January 25, 2016. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Phyllis B. Katz, and their 4 children and 8 grandchildren.
Publications (incomplete list)
*Physiology of the Heart
*Heart Failure: Pathophysiology, Molecular Biology, Clinical Management
* Effects of acetate and other short-chain fatty acids on yeast metabolism
*Regulation of myocardial contractility 1958-1983: an odyssey
*Regulation of coronary flow.
* Registration of left ventricular volume curves in the dog with the systemic circulation intact.
* Peptide separation by two-dimensional chromatography and electrophoresis.
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*Influence of tropomyosin upon the reactions of actomyosin at low ionic strength.
*Purification and properties of a tropomyosin-containing protein fraction that sensitizes reconstituted actomyosin to calcium-binding agents.
*Control of the activity of highly purified cardiac actomyosin by Ca++, Na+ and K+.
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* Katz AM "Biochemical "defect" in the hypertrophied and failing heart. Deleterious or compensatory" ''Circulation'' 1973;1076-1079.
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* Katz AM. "Potential deleterious effects of inotropic agents in the therapy of heart failure. ''Circulation'' 1986;73(Suppl III):184-190.
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Arnold Martin
1932 births
2016 deaths
American cardiologists
Harvard Medical School alumni
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty
University of Chicago alumni