Professor Jianjie Ma has earned his PhD in Physiology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1989. By 1991, he had launched his independent biomedical research career as an Assistant Professor at Rush University School of Medicine in Chicago. In 2001 at Rutgers University he founded the Graduate Program in Integrative Biology and Physiology and later served as Interim Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. Since 2022, his group has flourished at the University of Virginia, where he serves as the William H. Muller Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Director of the Division of Surgical Sciences, building deep collaborations with surgeons at the forefront of clinical and translational research.
A cornerstone of his scientific legacy is the identification of mitsugumin53 as a membrane-repair molecule with a “molecular bandage” function. This discovery has illuminated fundamental mechanisms of plasma-membrane repair and opened new therapeutic avenues for the protection and regeneration of muscle, heart, liver, kidney, brain, and lung tissues.
Over more than three decades, he has mentored a remarkably diverse cadre of pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, and surgeon-scientists and collaborated with scientists from the University of Debrecen. Guided by a steadfast belief that team success surpasses individual acclaim, his trainees now hold leadership roles across academia, the pharmaceutical industry, clinical care and research, regulatory affairs at the FDA, and the stewardship of intellectual property.