Kent L. Thornburg received his Ph.D. in developmental physiology and studied cardiovascular physiology as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at Oregon Health & Science University. He is M. Lowell Edwards Chair, Professor of Medicine, Director of the Center for Developmental Health at the Knight Cardiovascular Institute, and Director of the Bob and Charlee Moore Institute for Nutrition & Wellness.
Dr. Thornburg has expertise in cardiopulmonary physiology, placentology, and developmental programming. He studies the roles of the placenta and the intrauterine environment as programming agents for adult-onset chronic disease and he leads studies on maternal diet and body in regulating fetal growth in women of Oregon. He is the principal investigator on NIH funded studies including maternal-fetal signaling, training in translational cardiovascular research, thyroid hormone and heart development and placental function. He collaborates with scientists in England, New Zealand, France, Finland and Australia.
He served as editor of the journal, Placenta, as consulting editor for Pediatric Research and on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology. Additionally, Dr. Thornburg serves on advisory panels at the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and the Children’s Heart Foundation and recently served as co-chair of the task force to determine the 10-year vision of the developmental origins of health and disease for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He also served as a Distinguished Editor for the NIH Center for Scientific Review.
In addition to being an internationally known and widely published researcher, he loves teaching and mentoring students and junior faculty. He is committed to community service within OHSU and beyond including K-12 education programs, undergraduate research training programs and ethnic health programs.