ST. LOUIS, MO, August 07, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Yujie Zhu, MD, PhD, has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Descended from a prominent family, many of whom are featured in Wikipedia—including Zhu Lan, a distinguished statesman honored by both Emperor Daoguang and the influential reformer Zeng Guofan, and Zhu Shunshui, a renowned scholar-philosopher commemorated with a monument at the University of Tokyo—Dr. Zhu is a distinguished cardiovascular scientist. His groundbreaking discoveries have shed light on risk stratification and the prediction of serious heart conditions, redefined the understanding of arrhythmia mechanisms, advanced mutation-specific drug therapies, and identified circadian and sex-specific drivers of sudden cardiac death. His research also uncovered the cardiac manifestations of neurological and immunological disorders.

Dr. Zhu earned his bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, one of the two medical schools in China ranked highest in clinical medicine. His interdisciplinary work has advanced our understanding of how molecular and systemic disturbances lead to life-threatening diseases such as long QT syndrome, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Zhu serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Disease Research and as an editor, associate editor, or editorial board member for 15 peer-reviewed journals worldwide, spanning the full spectrum of medicine. He also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for over 25 journals, including AHA journals, the American Journal of Cardiology, and the International Journal of Cardiology. Dr. Zhu is currently editing the forthcoming reference work "ECG Algorithms in Cardiovascular Disease," commissioned by Bentham Science Publishers.

Dr. Zhu's career is marked by a series of remarkable discoveries that have made a lasting impact on the profession. He was the first scientist to establish a dynamic linear parametric model to study the relationship between ventricular repolarization duration and RR interval. He proposed a novel spectral decomposition of repolarization duration variability into physiology-related and pathology-related components, introducing a powerful noninvasive diagnostic method that aids in early diagnosis, risk stratification, and monitoring of cardiovascular diseases, and offers critical insight into the prediction of sudden cardiac death.

Another groundbreaking study by Dr. Zhu has redefined the pathophysiological understanding of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). His research identified microvascular ischemia as a primary driver of cardiac remodeling and ventricular arrhythmias in HCM. By showing that restoring coronary perfusion through vascular Kv1.5 potassium channel overexpression reverses hypoxia, fibrosis, and electrical instability, Dr. Zhu established a novel therapeutic strategy that has paved the way for early disease-modifying interventions.

Dr. Zhu's work in cardiac channelopathies has significantly advanced the understanding of how antiarrhythmic drugs interact with mutant cardiac sodium channels in long QT syndrome. His research supports the more precise use of flecainide to prevent life-threatening arrhythmias such as torsades de pointes. These findings contribute to the broader goal of improving cardiovascular health and preventing sudden cardiac death.

Dr. Zhu also advanced the understanding of sudden cardiac death in chronic heart failure by revealing a key circadian mechanism underlying arrhythmia vulnerability. He conducted a study, which revealed that CHF subjects experienced a sharp increase in life-threatening arrhythmias during the early morning. By elucidating how transient disruptions in autonomic balance and nonlinear cardiac dynamics drive arrhythmogenesis, this research provides new insights into clinical risk stratification, ECG monitoring, and the optimal timing of therapeutic interventions.

Notably, Dr. Zhu uncovered fundamental sex-based differences in cardiac repolarization, demonstrating that female ventricular myocytes exhibit reduced slow delayed rectifier potassium current and prolonged action potential duration, along with distinct regulation by ß-adrenergic receptors modulated by sex hormones. This mechanistic insight helps explain women's heightened susceptibility to drug-induced long QT syndrome and life-threatening arrhythmias, indicating a need for sex-specific antiarrhythmic therapy.

Dr. Zhu further expanded the frontiers of cardiovascular research by demonstrating that Huntington's disease (HD) also induces progressive, intrinsic cardiac electrical abnormalities. His findings support the integration of cardiac monitoring and rhythm-targeted therapies into HD care, laying the mechanistic groundwork for early diagnostic tools and arrhythmia-prevention strategies to improve outcomes in this high-risk population.

In neurophysiology, Dr. Zhu's work demonstrated that a single amino acid in the second transmembrane domain of GABA ρ receptors controls ion channel conductance. This discovery provided a mechanistic explanation for subtype-specific receptor behavior, paving the way for new drug design approaches in neurological disorders.

Moreover, Dr. Zhu contributed to a pivotal study that identified CD206⁺IL-4Rα⁺ macrophages as key drivers of fibrosis and ventricular dysfunction in ischemic cardiomyopathy. This discovery established a novel immunotherapeutic target for precision anti-fibrotic treatment in post-infarction heart failure. Dr. Zhu also advanced many other studies, including one that identified early molecular remodeling of Connexin43 as a key driver of arrhythmias in non-ischemic heart failure, and another that demonstrated how picrotoxin accelerates GABAc receptor deactivation through an allosteric mechanism.

Dr. Zhu's contributions extend beyond research and publication; he is also a dedicated educator and innovator, receiving the United Medical Education Award (Golden Prize) and the Outstanding Faculty Award in recognition of his teaching excellence. While serving as Chief Executive Officer of Cardiac Rhythm LLC, Dr. Zhu helped bridge the gap between academic discovery and commercial application, translating breakthrough research into practical and clinically applicable solutions.

Dr. Zhu is a senior member of IEEE-EMBS, a full member of Sigma Xi, and an active participant in the American Heart Association. Looking ahead, he aims to further expand his impact by advancing more effective strategies for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

About Marquis Who's Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who's Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.

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