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Living History of Physiology
 Mario
Vassalle
May 26, 1928, Tuscany, Italy
Mario Vassalle was born in Viareggio, a lovely seaside resort on the
Tyrrhenian coast of Tuscany, not far from Pisa, Lucca and Florence, where
the golden sand and the azure of the sea is crowned by the majesty of the
nearby mountains. There, he grew and received his elementary and high school
education. He attended the Liceo Classico, which, in those formative years
of his youth, shaped his heart and mind with long lasting effects: to this
day, he is deeply grateful for instilling in him the love of beauty and a
passion for clarity.
He
then enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Pisa, where,
once he obtained his MD degree, he was an assistant in Medicine for some 5
years.
In
1958 Dr. Vassalle’s aspirations enticed him to go to New York, a beautiful
city that he deeply loves. He was then Acting Chief Resident in Medicine at
the French Hospital in Manhattan, having been awarded a Fulbright Travel
Grant to come to America.
After one year, his interest in research drove him to devote himself full
time to the experimental study of the function of the heart. His clinical
experience has substantially influenced his research activity in the field
of spontaneous activity of the heart under normal and abnormal conditions.
In
1959, Dr. Vassalle was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cardiovascular Research
and Training Program in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology,
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, under the direction of
Professors William F. Hamilton and Raymond P. Ahlquist, scientists well
known in the physiology and pharmacology of the cardiovascular system. In
1960, Dr. Vassalle was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of
Physiology, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center at
Brooklyn, New York, under the direction of Prof. Brian F. Hoffman, who is
one of the top scientists in the field of cardiac electrophysiology.
In
1962-1964, with the help of a grant of N.I.H., Dr. Vassalle worked as a
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physiologisches Institut, Universität Bern, Bern,
Switzerland, under the guidance of Prof. Silvio Weidmann, the initiator of
cardiac electrophysiology. In Bern, Dr. Vassalle was the second to apply the
method of voltage clamping to a cardiac tissue and the first to demonstrate
the ionic mechanism responsible for the diastolic depolarization (pacemaker
potential) in Purkinje fibers.
In
1964, Dr. Vassalle went back to the Department of Physiology, Downstate
Medical Center, in New York, where he has remained since, continuing his
work in the field of cardiac electrophysiology. Here, he and his co-workers
have used a variety of preparations and methods to study different problems.
At the State University of New York, Dr. Vassalle progressed from Visiting
Assistant Professor (1964) to Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and
Full Professor(1971). Since July 2006, he is Professor Emeritus of
Physiology and Pharmacology. He has been Visiting Professor at numerous
national and international Universities.
Up
to the present time, Prof. Vassalle has edited 4 books, published 56
reviews, 176 original papers e 165 abstracts. He also published 5 books of
poems and 3 books of aphorisms and philosophical essays. During his career,
he received the financial support for his research activity from N.I.H. and
the American Heart Association. Among the honors that Prof . Vassalle has
received is a Laurea ad Honorem on the occasion of the 600th
Anniversary of the foundation of the University of Ferrara.
He is a
member of several scientific societies and has been invited to speak at
numerous national and international meetings (United States, Canada,
Holland, France, Argentina, Italy, Taiwan, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan and
China). He has been an Associate Editor of the American Journal of
Physiology, Heart and Circulatory Physiology, member of the Editorial
Board and editorial consultant of several journals of different countries.
He has been a consultant for N.I.H site visits, member ad hoc for per "study
sections" and regular member of the Cardiopulmonary Study Section of N.I.H.
Young researchers have come to his laboratory for training from the United
States, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, China, Mexico, etc. In
addition, Prof. Vassalle has trained in his laboratory several graduate
students in the theory of and experimentation in cardiac physiology toward
the Ph.D. degree.
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