Printer Friendly Version - Dr. Stuart Campbell: Science from the Heart

Dr. Stuart Campbell is a familiar face in Madison elementary and middle schools, sharing his cardiac research with students and inspiring a love of science in local young people. Photo by Susan Talpey/The Source

When Dr. Stuart Campbell was 19 years old, he debated whether to pursue a career as a musician or become a scientist. While he may never have his name in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Stuart’s decision to study science could save lives.

As an associate professor of biomedical engineering and cellular and molecular physiology at Yale University, Stuart’s ground-breaking research in inherited heart conditions is contributing to a global effort to end this sudden and tragic loss of life.

“I research heart disorders that are caused by inherited mutations in DNA. These are the conditions that are associated with young athletes who drop dead on the field or young people who die while out on a run,” he says.

“These events are often unfairly linked to exercise, but in fact they are an inherited heart condition. They are compelling because the people afflicted are in their late teens to 40s, and these deaths devastate families and leave children without parents. It’s tragic.”

“Inherited heart disorders are more common than cystic fibrosis, with one in 500 people having a condition. They are a significant health concern and they are passed down through generations,” Stuart says.

“Two years after I started this research at Yale, my brother-in-law died from a heart condition. Personally, I know four or five people whose hearts have stopped, some of them were revived and some died, because of inherited heart disorders. It’s not rare and most people know someone who has been affected by it.”

In his lab at Yale, Stuart and his fellow researchers are at the cutting edge of biomedical research.

“We can now take a blood sample from someone and make stem cells to create engineered heart tissue. We can test that tissue, which is unique to that person. Everyone’s different and this personalized diagnosis is the future of medicine,” he says.

This is a new platform to understand the disease with the end goal of creating a cure.

“The mutation can be different in each family and people can pass it on to some children but not others. Our research is focused on doing a better job of diagnosing these conditions and identifying who is at risk, particularly children,” he says.

A Madison resident of six years, Stuart carves time out of his professional schedule to visit the Jeffrey School once or twice a year to talk about science, and has just completed a series of guest presentations at Polson and Brown Middle schools, sharing his firsthand insight in their cardiovascular science unit.

“My daughter came home with a diagram of the heart, which they were studying in science. I thought that was cool, so I wrote to the 7th-grade science teacher and volunteered to come in and talk about the heart. The 6th-grade program culminated in two sessions that focused on an introduction of the heart muscle. I designed a lab experience for the students to do following the presentation including an EKG,” he says.

“These students are smart! I was really impressed with their ability to understand the heart and to put all the information together,” he says. “We did an exercise where they got to make their own cell and we ran it through the computer that predicted how the cell they designed would behave. After I finished, there were three or four students who came up to ask more questions and that was the most gratifying part.”

Stuart developed and delivered the middle school program as part of a funding application for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which required an educational outreach component encouraging the dissemination of science research in creative ways.

“All science starts with some kind of human concern. We harp on science education in this country a lot and yes, we need to be really serious about science education, but we also need to show young people how fun it is,” he says. “I hope they want to learn more about science and keep their options open. To think ‘is this something I’d like to do?’”

“Physiology is really an owner’s manual for the body and so everyone has firsthand experience of the body and most people are curious about it on some level. There’s lots of ‘news you can use’ about how to be healthy and why things work the way they do. It’s science that’s relatable and super important,” he says.

Science played a large role in Stuart’s life when he was growing up, with his father an environmental scientist who taught at Washington State University.

“My father was an inventor and that rubbed off on me. I was always busy making stuff. When I was a teenager I played in rock bands, but even then, I was more interested in the equipment than practicing.”

After graduating high school and heading off to Washington State University, Stuart was considering a future in music or science when he took a break and completed a two-year religious mission in Spain. He returned stateside and discovered his brother has already signed him up for sophomore classes.

“I was signed up for biomedical engineering and I had a great time. I met the professors that really inspired me. When I began studying biomedical science, I thought, ‘Finally, here’s the real stuff.’ It’s life and death,” he says.

“One day the teacher put up a diagram of an electrical circuit and said he was going to use it to describe the circulatory system. For me, fireworks went off and I thought, ‘This is what I want to do.’”

Stuart graduated with a science degree and moved to San Diego, graduating with Ph.D. from the University of California. While in Kentucky completing pre- and postdoctoral fellowships with the American Heart Association, Stuart was offered his current research and teaching role at Yale University.

“The cardiovascular program at Yale is very strong and I had a great match with the department here,” he says. “The person who hired me lived in Madison, so when we visited we came here and instantly fell in love with the town,” he says.

Two years later, Stuart’s family were struck by tragedy with the sudden death of his brother-in-law from an inherited heart disorder.

Stuart and his wife, Adrianne, met at Washington State University and have been married 15 years. They have four children: Hannah, who is in grade 7 at Polson Middle School; Grant, a grade 4 student, and Claire, a 2nd-grader at the Jeffery School; and Sam, who attends the Circle Nursery School in North Madison.

When Stuart’s family moved to Madison, they joined the local congregation of the Church of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons. For four years, Stuart taught seminary to high school students then served on the church’s regional council before starting his current volunteer role.

“Our church is wonderful and we had friends from the minute we arrived in Madison,” he said. “Two months ago, I became the head of the Madison congregation, which we call a bishop. It’s intense, but it’s also really great,” he says.

In the fall, Stuart will return to Brown Middle School to teach the same heart unit with future plans to post the curriculum online for all Madison schools.