Daniel E. Michele, Ph.D., named chair of Molecular & Integrative Physiology

The Board of Regents today (May 18) approved the appointment of Daniel E. Michele, Ph.D., as chair of the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology and the John A. Jacquez Collegiate Professor of Physiology, both effective July 1, 2023. He had served as interim chair since September 2021.

During his tenure as interim chair, Michele has been a strong advocate for faculty. The department recruited two new tenure track assistant professors — Longhua Guo, Ph.D., in partnership with the Geriatrics Center, and Elise Savier, Ph.D., in partnership with the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and the Michigan Neuroscience Institute — and he also has expanded the role of research track faculty in department governance. Under his leadership, the department had a 15-percent increase in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding , maintaining the department’s national rankings for total NIH funding (#2 in country) and total number of research awards (#1 in country ). He also has advanced his own personal research focused on the mechanisms of muscular dystrophy associated with mutations in the transmembrane dystrophin-glycoprotein complex. 

For nearly two decades, he has been extensively involved in departmental and university-wide committees, including education, advocacy and outreach, and administrative service at Michigan. He completed his Ph.D. here in 2000 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Iowa from 2000-04. He joined the U-M faculty in 2004 as an assistant professor and a Biological Sciences Scholar. He rose through the ranks to associate professor in 2011 and to professor in 2017. He also holds an appointment as professor of internal medicine.

During his time as a faculty member, he founded and has served as director of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center (FCVC) Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program for the past 13 years, director of the Translational Cardiovascular Research and Entrepreneurship T32 Training Grant, co-chair of the FCVC Basic Sciences Committee, and he was the Ph.D. graduate program director in his department. He has been recognized as a teacher and mentor as recipient of the EBS Teaching Award in Physiology, the MICHR Distinguished Mentor Award, and the FCVC Directors Award for Excellence in Research. He also is a member of the Medical School League of Educational Excellence. Nationally, he has served on NIH study sections, science policy and animal research committees for the American Physiological Society, and on the editorial boards of JCI Insight and FEBS Journal.