CV institute co-director sees potential for high-impact research

After nearly 20 years at Northwestern University, Matthew Feinstein’s decision to move 200 miles south to IU School of Medicine boiled down to the potential for considerable impact in a unique environment.

“Being the only academic health system in Indiana offers distinct opportunities for our research and clinical care to have significant and measurable impact,” said Feinstein, MD, MSc, who joined IU School of Medicine and IU Health in January 2026 as co-director of the Cardiovascular Institute, and division chief of cardiovascular medicine. “I am excited by the deep, meaningful integration between mission-driven clinical and research entities here—to the point that school and health system leadership are on the same office floor. This kind of research and clinical integration is unique and essential to delivering high-quality patient care and fueling patient-centered discovery.”

A general and preventive cardiologist, Feinstein is an expert in managing cardiovascular risk in individuals throughout the life course. This involves optimizing lifestyle and monitoring approaches in healthy individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease, as well as incorporating the latest therapies to improve symptoms and reduce disease progression in individuals who have experienced heart-related events. In addition, Feinstein has expertise in managing cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic inflammatory or infectious conditions. He led an American Heart Association (AHA) scientific statement on cardiovascular disease risk assessment, management and prevention in people with HIV that has been cited more than 500 times.

From a research standpoint, Feinstein oversees a translational research program focused on inflammation in heart, vascular and metabolic disease. He leads a bedside-to-bench translational research lab, which leverages rigorously sampled human specimens and data to study how immune cells regulate inflammation in the cardiovascular system. This bedside-to-bench approach reflects Feinstein’s scientific training and career arc. His early training in cardiovascular epidemiology demonstrated a critical patient-centric gap: Inflammation is a major contributor to heart attacks and heart failure, yet options to treat cardiovascular inflammation are limited, as is the understanding of the underlying factors driving CV inflammation.

With this revelation, Feinstein deepened his experience and collaboration in immunology, given the central role of immune responses in inflammation persistence versus resolution. He now leads one of three AHA-funded centers in the nation specifically devoted to the study of inflammation in cardiovascular disease. As part of a Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN), this work involves a combination of human population-based insights, deep immune phenotyping of patient samples and in vivo experimental models all devoted to understanding the immune features that predispose to – and may protect from – excess, harmful inflammation in the cardiovascular system.

“I've always been a big believer that our observations of human health and disease should continuously inform what we do to understand the causes and potential solutions for disease,” said Feinstein, who, as part of the SFRN, investigates the links between metabolic alterations and immune cell reprogramming on heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a condition that accounts for 50% of all heart failure. “It needs to be an iterative process whereby evolving mechanisms inform what we do clinically and evolving disease processes in turn inform our research.”

Feinstein leads the Cardiovascular Institute with Sara J. Pereira, MD, FACS, division chief of cardiothoracic surgery, who came to IU School of Medicine in August 2025 from the University of Utah. The institute, one of three such partnerships between IU School of Medicine and IU Health, brings together highly skilled clinicians, researchers and educators in collaboration with the aim of improving health for patients and communities in Indiana.

With plans to expand the institute’s basic science and clinical research activity, Feinstein has spent part of his first six months on the job investigating the local resources available to help engage and accelerate research. He said resources like the Indiana Biobank, Indiana CTSI, AnalytiXIN and the school’s rich academic and industry partnerships are part of what enables the development of high-impact research.

“By growing our clinical trials and leveraging our statewide presence, resources and emerging data science methods, we have the opportunity to bring clinical trials expertise to more people across the IU Health system and across the state, which ultimately leads to better health outcomes,” Feinstein said. “We have what it takes here to be a national model for implementation of novel, data science-enabled clinical trials and interventions.”