Sharon George

Dr Sharon Ann George earned her Bachelor of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering from Anna University, Chennai. She then pursued her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Virginia Tech where her dissertation work focused on the role of a novel form of electrical coupling between cardiac cells, called ephaptic coupling. Her work identified that modulating ionic composition of extracellular nanodomains along the intercalated disc could modulate electric potentials in these spaces and allows each cardiomyocyte to depolarize its neighbor. Dr George then did her postdoctoral training at the George Washington University where she began her research in the field of cardio-oncology. Her postdoctoral work identified the role of stress signaling molecules that are involved in the development of cardiotoxic effects of cancer chemotherapeutics. Interestingly, her work also identified that p38 MAPK, a stress signaling molecule, has sex-specific and isoform-specific effects on the heart. Dr George then began her role as an Assistant Professor (Research track) at Northwestern University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering where she continued her work in cardio-oncology and focused on the role of exercise and preserving metabolism to protect the heart during cancer chemotherapy. In 2024, Dr George joined Pitt as an Assistant Professor (Tenure track) and she continues her work on identifying metabolic targets for cardioprotection during chemotherapy while focusing on sex dimorphism in this phenomenon.

  • Paul E Torgersen Research Excellence Award.

  • B.E., Anna University, 2011
  • Ph.D., Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University, 2016

  • George, S.A., Mills, A.V., O'Neill, E., Obaid, S.N., Efimov, I.R., & Efimova, T. (2026). Age- and sex-specific modulation of human cardiac electrophysiology by doxorubicin. J Physiol.Wiley. doi: 10.1113/JP290705.
  • Mills, A., & George, S.A. (2025). Quadruple Parametric Optical Mapping to Measure Cardiac Metabolism-Excitation-Contraction Coupling. In bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.03.12.642802.
  • Mills, A., & George, S.A. (2025). Quadruple parametric optical mapping to measure cardiac metabolism-excitation-contraction coupling. Commun Biol, 8(1), 1843.Springer Nature. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-09240-z.
  • Trampel, K.A., Li, B., Melisova, A., Madrid, M., George, S.A., & Efimov, I.R. (2025). Seahorse Metabolic Analysis for Human and Mouse Cardiac Organotypic Slices. In bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.11.659150.
  • Fullenkamp, D.E., Maeng, W.Y., Oh, S., Luan, H., Kim, K.S., Chychula, I.A., Kim, J.T., Yoo, J.Y., Holgren, C.W., Demonbreun, A.R., George, S., Li, B., Hsu, Y., Chung, G., Yoo, J., Koo, J., Park, Y., Efimov, I.R., McNally, E.M., & Rogers, J.A. (2024). Simultaneous electromechanical monitoring in engineered heart tissues using a mesoscale framework. Sci Adv, 10(37), eado7089.American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado7089.
  • George, S.A., Trampel, K.A., Brunner, K., & Efimov, I.R. (2024). Moderate Endurance Exercise Increases Arrhythmia Susceptibility and Modulates Cardiac Structure and Function in a Sexually Dimorphic Manner. J Am Heart Assoc, 13(9), e033317.Wolters Kluwer. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.123.033317.
  • Chen, Z., Lin, Z., Obaid, S.N., Rytkin, E., George, S.A., Bach, C., Madrid, M., Liu, M., LaPiano, J., Fehr, A., Shi, X., Quirion, N., Russo, B., Knight, H., Aduwari, A., Efimov, I.R., & Lu, L. (2023). Soft, bioresorbable, transparent microelectrode arrays for multimodal spatiotemporal mapping and modulation of cardiac physiology. Sci Adv, 9(27), eadi0757.American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0757.
  • George, S.A., Brennan-McLean, J.A., Trampel, K.A., Rytkin, E., Faye, N.R., Knollmann, B.C., & Efimov, I.R. (2023). Ryanodine receptor inhibition with acute dantrolene treatment reduces arrhythmia susceptibility in human hearts. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 325(4), H720-H728.American Physiological Society. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00103.2023.
  • George, S.A., Kiss, A., Trampel, K.A., Obaid, S.N., Tang, L., Efimov, I.R., & Efimova, T. (2023). Anthracycline cardiotoxicity is exacerbated by global p38β genetic ablation in a sexually dimorphic manner but unaltered by cardiomyocyte-specific p38α loss. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 325(5), H983-H997.American Physiological Society. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00458.2023.
  • George, S.A., Trampel, K.A., Brunner, K., & Efimov, I.R. (2023). Moderate Endurance Exercise Increases Arrhythmia Susceptibility and modulates Cardiac Structure and Function in a Sexually Dimorphic manner. 2023.08.21.554195.Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. doi: 10.1101/2023.08.21.554195.
  • George, S.A., Lin, Z., & Efimov, I.R. (2022). Simultaneous triple-parametric optical mapping of transmembrane potential, intracellular calcium and NADH for cardiac physiology assessment. Commun Biol, 5(1), 319.Springer Nature. doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03279-y.
  • George, S.A., Lin, Z., & Efimov, I.R. (2021). Simultaneous Triple-Parametric Optical Mapping of Transmembrane Potential, Intracellular Calcium and NADH for Cardiac Physiology Assessment. 2021.09.09.459667.Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. doi: 10.1101/2021.09.09.459667.
  • Warhol, A., George, S.A., Obaid, S.N., Efimova, T., & Efimov, I.R. (2021). Differential cardiotoxic electrocardiographic response to doxorubicin treatment in conscious versus anesthetized mice. Physiol Rep, 9(15), e14987.Wiley. doi: 10.14814/phy2.14987.
  • George, S.A., Brennan, J.A., & Efimov, I.R. (2020). Preclinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Assessment by Dual Voltage and Calcium Optical Mapping of Human Organotypic Cardiac Slices. J Vis Exp, (160).MyJove. doi: 10.3791/60781.
  • George, S.A., Kiss, A., Obaid, S.N., Venegas, A., Talapatra, T., Wei, C., Efimova, T., & Efimov, I.R. (2020). p38δ genetic ablation protects female mice from anthracycline cardiotoxicity. 2020.03.02.973347.Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. doi: 10.1101/2020.03.02.973347.
  • Miller, J.M., Meki, M.H., Ou, Q., George, S.A., Gams, A., Abouleisa, R.R.E., Tang, X.L., Ahern, B.M., Giridharan, G.A., El-Baz, A., Hill, B.G., Satin, J., Conklin, D.J., Moslehi, J., Bolli, R., Ribeiro, A.J.S., Efimov, I.R., & Mohamed, T.M.A. (2020). Heart slice culture system reliably demonstrates clinical drug-related cardiotoxicity. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol, 406, 115213.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2020.115213.
  • Cathey, B., Obaid, S., Zolotarev, A.M., Pryamonosov, R.A., Syunyaev, R.A., George, S.A., & Efimov, I.R. (2019). Open-Source Multiparametric Optocardiography. Sci Rep, 9(1), 721.Springer Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-36809-y.
  • Efimov, I.R., & George, S. (2018). Authors' Reply: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Human AV Node. Arrhythm Electrophysiol Rev, 7(1), 63-64.Radcliffe Cardiology. doi: 10.15420/aer.2018.7.1.L1.R1.
  • George, S.A., Calhoun, P.J., Gourdie, R.G., Smyth, J.W., & Poelzing, S. (2017). TNFα Modulates Cardiac Conduction by Altering Electrical Coupling between Myocytes. Front Physiol, 8, 334.Frontiers. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00334.
  • George, S.A., Faye, N.R., Murillo-Berlioz, A., Lee, K.B., Trachiotis, G.D., & Efimov, I.R. (2017). At the Atrioventricular Crossroads: Dual Pathway Electrophysiology in the Atrioventricular Node and its Underlying Heterogeneities. Arrhythm Electrophysiol Rev, 6(4), 179-185.Radcliffe Cardiology. doi: 10.15420/aer.2017.30.1.
  • Greer-Short, A., George, S.A., Poelzing, S., & Weinberg, S.H. (2017). Revealing the Concealed Nature of Long-QT Type 3 Syndrome. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol, 10(2), e004400.Wolters Kluwer. doi: 10.1161/CIRCEP.116.004400.
  • Entz, M., George, S.A., Zeitz, M.J., Raisch, T., Smyth, J.W., & Poelzing, S. (2016). Heart Rate and Extracellular Sodium and Potassium Modulation of Gap Junction Mediated Conduction in Guinea Pigs. Front Physiol, 7, 16.Frontiers. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2016.00016.
  • George, S.A., & Poelzing, S. (2016). Cardiac conduction in isolated hearts of genetically modified mice--Connexin43 and salts. Prog Biophys Mol Biol, 120(1-3), 189-198.Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2015.11.004.
  • George, S.A., Bonakdar, M., Zeitz, M., Davalos, R.V., Smyth, J.W., & Poelzing, S. (2016). Extracellular sodium dependence of the conduction velocity-calcium relationship: evidence of ephaptic self-attenuation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 310(9), H1129-H1139.American Physiological Society. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00857.2015.
  • George, S.A., Sciuto, K.J., Lin, J., Salama, M.E., Keener, J.P., Gourdie, R.G., & Poelzing, S. (2015). Extracellular sodium and potassium levels modulate cardiac conduction in mice heterozygous null for the Connexin43 gene. Pflugers Arch, 467(11), 2287-2297.Springer Nature. doi: 10.1007/s00424-015-1698-0.
Research Interests
Medical physiology Biochemistry and cell biology Cardiovascular medicine and haematology Clinical sciences Biomedical engineering
headshot of Sharon George
Contact Sharon George
Assistant Professor
SAGEORGE@pitt.edu
Website
Bioengineering Department