Dr. Donahue is a clinically trained cardiac electrophysiologist with research interests in developing new gene therapies for cardiac arrhythmias. He has invested considerable effort in facilitating the delivery of genetic material to the heart in an efficient and specific manner, a fundamental obstacle in applying gene therapy to treat human disease. Dr. Donahue has used gene therapy to control the ventricular response rate during atrial fibrillation, as a proof of concept that gene therapy can be used for common arrhythmias. More recently, his lab has investigated the use of gene therapy to treat atrial fibrillation itself, and to prevent ventricular tachycardia in the setting of myocardial infarction. Current work in the Donahue lab is directed toward a better understanding of arrhythmias on a molecular level, the choice of genes for treatment of these arrhythmias, and the evaluation of arrhythmia risk before and after gene therapy for these very common arrhythmias.

Honors, Awards, and Organizations
David H. Bernstein Idea Award in cardiovascular biology, 2001
American Heart Association, “Top 10 Research Advances in Cardiovascular Disease”, 2000

Recent Publications
Greener I, Donahue JK. Gene therapy strategies for cardiac electrical
dysfunction. J Mol Cell Cardiol. 2011 May;50(5):759-65. Epub 2010 Aug 7. PubMed
PMID: 20696170; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3032832.

Amit G, Kikuchi K, Greener ID, Yang L, Novack V, Donahue JK. Selective
molecular potassium channel blockade prevents atrial fibrillation. Circulation.
2010 Jun 1;121(21):2263-70. Epub 2010 May 17. PubMed PMID: 20479154; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC2892844.

Donahue JK. Advice for management of the long-QT patient. J Cardiovasc
Electrophysiol. 2010 Aug 1;21(8):902-4. Epub 2010 Apr 23. PubMed PMID: 20455972.