Erik Blackwood, PhD
Erik Blackwood, PhD
Investigator Nora Eccles Harrison CVRTI
Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology
Dr. Blackwood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology and Investigator in both the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research & Training Institute (CVRTI) and the Diabetes & Metabolism Research Center at the University of Utah College of Health. Although born and raised in San Diego, Dr. Blackwood received his BS from the University of Notre Dame (Go Irish!) where he worked in a cardiovascular physiology laboratory focused on identifying mechanistic roles for the signaling molecule, hydrogen sulfide, in vasodilation. From there, he returned home to San Diego first working as a first responder and emergency medical technician before joining the laboratory of Dr. Chris Glembotski at San Diego State University to pursue his PhD in cell & molecular biology with a focus on molecular cardiology. Dr. Blackwood’s graduate research was focused on identifying novel roles for the transcription factor, ATF6, as part of the adaptive unfolded protein response (UPR) in the setting of ischemia-reperfusion injury and pressure overload-induced heart failure. After completing his doctoral studies, Dr. Blackwood moved with Dr. Glembotski to the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix to help initiate the Translational Cardiovascular Research Center of which Dr. Glembotski is the inaugural Director. During this time, Dr. Blackwood started his own independent research program with a growing interest in both protein homeostasis (proteostasis) and cellular quality control in the setting of progressive heart failure and, more specifically, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
In 2024, Dr. Blackwood was recruited to the University of Utah and moved his laboratory to continue his research on the mechanistic underpinnings of HFpEF where he is now a tenure-line Assistant Professor. Dr. Blackwood’s laboratory takes a two-pronged approach to research projects where every investigation is focused on both (1) novel mechanistic discovery and (2) therapeutic design and development. With his laboratory housed in the CVRTI surrounded by world-leading experts in heart failure and gene therapy-based approaches as curative measures for heart failure, Dr. Blackwood and his team are well poised to identify novel mechanistic targets of interest and move their potential therapeutic interventions towards clinical trials.
