Jürgen Keller

Biography: Dr. Keller is a clinician-investigator-innovator who provides care to children and adults with congenital heart disease throughout Kentucky. He is also an expert in the causes of congenital heart disease and in the development and testing of novel technologies for children and adults with heart disease. Dr. Keller completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981, medical degree at Penn State University College of Medicine in 1985, pediatric residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1988, and his pediatric cardiology fellowship at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1991. After 7 years as a faculty member at the University of Rochester, Dr. Keller served as the chief of Pediatric Cardiology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY from 1998 to 2002. He was then recruited in 2002 to the role of Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Dr. Keller expanded the pediatric cardiology faculty and was a member of the design team for the new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Lawrenceville campus which included a new research and outpatient towers. From 2005 to 2010, Dr. Keller serves as the Medical Director for the Touching Hearts in Tibet Program which was contracted to identify and treat children with congenital heart disease in the Tibet Autonomous Region in China. During the 10-year program, more than 25,000 children were screened and more than 250 tibetan children and adults with congenital heart disease underwent successful catheter intervention or cardiac surgery. In 2009 Dr. Keller joined the faculty of the University of Louisville and the Pediatric Cardiology Associates practice which provided care to children and adults with congenital heart disease throughout Kentucky. From 2009 to 2020, Dr. Keller served as a tenured professor of pediatrics, pharmacology and toxicology, and bioengineering at the University of Louisville and the Director of the Pediatric Heart Research Program in the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute (CII) at the University of Louisville. Dr. Keller served as Kosair Charities Endowed Chair in Pediatric Heart Surgery Research from 2009-2019 and as the Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics from 2009 to 2018. Dr. Keller served as the lead physician for design and construction of the new 170,000 sq ft. Novak Center for Children’s Health which opened in July of 2018. Dr. Keller became the Director for Pediatric Cardiology Outreach Services for the Department of Pediatrics in May of 2019. Dr. Keller was recruited by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) on March 1st, 2020 to become Professor of Pediatrics (Cardiology) and Co-Director of the Greater Louisville and Western Kentucky Practice of the Children’s Hospital Heart Institute. Dr. Keller’s role is to expand access for outpatient congenital heart services as well access to comprehensive care at CCHMC.

Dr. Keller is internationally recognized for his novel research in defining the biomechanical forces that regulating normal and abnormal heart formation, for developing engineered tissues that can be used for cardiac repair and regeneration, and the development and testing of innovative technologies including home telemedicine solutions. Dr. Keller received his first NIH funded award in 1988 and has participated in the successful funding of over $30M related to pediatric cardiovascular research. Dr. Keller has served as a mentor for undergraduate and graduate medical and bioengineering students, and for medical students, residents, and fellows from the United States, Japan, and China. He has served as a peer reviewer for multiple NIH study sections in the areas of cardiovascular developmental biology, stem cells, tissue engineering, and novel cardiovascular technologies and as a peer-reviewer for numerous academic publications.