Rate My Professor Ryan Boudreau

Ryan Boudreau, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine–Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. He earned his PhD in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Iowa in 2008 and completed postdoctoral training there. As Principal Investigator of the Boudreau Lab and Assistant Director of the Abboud Cardiovascular Research Center, his research examines post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in diseased and developing heart and brain tissues. The lab identifies disease-associated RNA-binding proteins and microRNAs, maps their targets using HITS-CLIP and CLIP-seq, and investigates how genetic variations disrupt these networks. Additional efforts explore novel microproteins and long non-coding RNAs, employing viral vectors, CRISPR mouse models, human iPSC-derived cells, and computational tools to translate findings into therapies for cardiovascular and neurological disorders.

Boudreau's career at the University of Iowa has been marked by substantial NIH and foundation support, including a 2025 seven-year $7.6 million NHLBI R35 Emerging Investigator Award unifying projects on SCN5A variants in cardiac sodium channels, microRNA-mRNA interactomes, and mitoregulin in heart failure, ischemia-reperfusion injury, arrhythmias, and cancer. He previously received a 2019 five-year $1.9 million NIH R01 for SCN5A studies, a 2016 three-year $438,657 Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust Young Investigator Award for RNA regulation in heart failure, and a two-year $200,000 American Heart Association Innovative Project Award. With over 5,700 citations per Google Scholar, notable publications include "Mitoregulin: A lncRNA-Encoded Microprotein that Supports Central Respiratory Complex Assembly" (Cell Reports, 2018), "Elucidation of transcriptome-wide microRNA binding sites in human cardiac tissues by Ago2 HITS-CLIP" (Nucleic Acids Research, 2016), "A common variant alters SCN5A–miR-24 interaction and associates with heart failure mortality" (Nature Communications, 2018), and "Short SCN5A Transcript Yields a NaV1.5 Fragment Promoting Mitochondrial Respiration" (Circulation Research, 2026).