Profile of Robert W. Mahley

摘要

Heart disease and the church were two forces that shaped the teenage years of cardiovascular biologist Robert W. Mahley. The first, in the form of a massive heart attack, stole his 37-year-old father; the second provided support through a community of men in his congregation who took the 13-year-old boy under its wing. Originally drawn to become a Presbyterian minister, Mahley instead found a stronger calling in the deep beauty of biology. "I don't remember actually thinking, 'I'm going to become a heart disease doctor and cure my father's illness,' but to be a 13-year-old and lose your father—that most likely planted something pretty deep in my subconscious," Mahley says. "When I started working on lipids in the early 1960s, I was immediately attracted."