Ahmed A Tawakol MD

Ahmed Tawakol is Director of Nuclear Cardiology and Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He obtained his medical degree from Stanford Medical School, then trained at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and MGH for Nuclear Cardiology.

Dr. Tawakol is a pioneer in PET/CT imaging of atherosclerotic plaques. His group developed and validated molecular imaging as a tool to assess atherosclerotic plaque inflammation in humans. Dr Tawakol’s research includes a focus on mechanisms by which stress causes cardiovascular diseases. His team recently provided the first in-human observation linking brain activity (within the amygdala, the area of the brain determining stress) to subsequent CVD events, thus providing mechanistic insights into how psychosocial stress promotes CVD. He is principal investigator on multiple studies funded by the NIH, industrial sponsors, and foundations.