Allan Jaffe MD

Allan S. Jaffe, M.D., is a consultant in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine and in the Division of Clinical Core Laboratory Services in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He holds the academic rank of Professor of Cardiology and Professor of Laboratory Medicine and pathology. He is the Wayne and Kathryn Preisel Professor of Cardiovascular Research.

Dr. Jaffe's research interests include a long academic career investigating the use of biomarkers to characterize the pathobiology of acute cardiovascular disease. With investigators at Washington University in St. Louis, he helped develop and was responsible for the validation studies of the first cardiac troponin I assay. His cutting-edge research explores questions surrounding many commonly used cardiac biomarkers. For that reason, he sits on most of the groups responsible for the implementation of guidelines in these areas. He has been one of the principal authors for the 4 iterations of the Universal Definition of MI.

Dr. Jaffe is a highly esteemed national and international presenter who has co-authored five books and written more than 1000 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and abstracts. His writings particularly focus on the use of both cardiac troponin and natriuretic peptides to characterize patients with both acute and chronic heart failure. Dr. Jaffe has received many awards and honors throughout his career, including the Citation of International Service from the American Heart Association, the Distinguished Teacher Award from the American College of Cardiology, and the career achievement award for contributions to a specific area of laboratory medicine from the American Association of Clinical Chemistry.

Dr. Jaffe completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, where he also earned his medical degree. He trained at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for house staff, chief residency, and fellowship training and was on the faculty there for 22 years, rising to the rank of professor of medicine. He left in 1995 to become chief of cardiology and associate chair of medicine for Academic Affairs at the State University of New York at Syracuse in 1995. In 1999, he was recruited to Mayo Clinic in cardiology and laboratory medicine.