Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine
Nolan Family Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine
Dr. Yeh graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a major in Biochemistry and received his medical degree from the University of California, Davis. He completed medical residency at the Boston VA Medical Center and did a post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Baruj Benacerraf at Harvard Medical School. In 1987, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In the early 1990’s, Dr. Yeh relocated to Houston to join the faculty of The University of Texas and the Texas Heart Institute. In 2000, he founded the Department of Cardiology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and developed a new field called Onco-cardiology that specializes on caring cancer patients who developed heart problems caused by cancer therapy. He was recruited to the University of Missouri at Columbia as Chair of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Center for Precision Medicine in 2016. In three years, he raised the department’s national ranking in NIH-funded research from 98 to 76. In 2020, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Nolan Family Distinguished Chair in Internal Medicine.
Dr. Yeh’s laboratory discovered Sentrin/SUMO that have revolutionized our understanding of cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory also discovered the molecular basis of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity that shepherds in a new era of personalized cardio-protection for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. He received grants from the National Institute of Health, Department of Defense, and Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas. He was the McNair Scholar in the Texas Heart Institute, the Massachusetts General Hospital/Upjohn Scholar, Arthritis Investigator from the Arthritis Foundation, and the Established Investigator of the American Heart Association. Ed has mentored a large number of physician/scientists and basic scientists, who have become chair, dean, or independent investigators. He has written over 150 scientific papers, many of which are landmark contributions to science and medicine.
Dr. Yeh was elected to memberships in American Association of the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Physicians, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and Academia Sinica. He was honored as the Distinguished Alumnus of the University of California, Davis Medical School. He has held prominent positions as the President of the Houston Cardiology Society, President of the Board of American Heart Association, Houston Chapter, and board member of the American Heart Association, Texas and South-Central Affiliate.