Kimara L. Targoff, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center and a Pediatric Cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. Her research focuses on the identification and characterization of genes essential to key developmental processes in cardiac morphogenesis, particularly utilizing zebrafish as a model organism. Dr. Targoff's laboratory investigates the role of nkx genes, which are cardiac-specific homeodomain transcription factors, in establishing and maintaining cardiomyocyte identity. Her work has revealed the strong association of NKX2-5 with human congenital heart disease and elucidated the molecular and cellular mechanisms guiding cardiac development and chamber-specific traits in cardiomyocytes.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center • New York, NY
Teaching and conducting research in pediatric cardiology.