Nancy J. Brown, MD

Scientific Advisory Board

Nancy J. Brown, M.D. is the Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Yale School of Medicine and the C.N.H. Long Professor of Internal Medicine. Dr. Brown’s research focuses on cardiovascular pharmacology and vascular biology in humans. She is particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms of drugs that are peptidase inhibitors, including the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitors, and neprilysin inhibitors. Her group has elucidated not only how these drugs decrease inflammation, enhance fibrinolysis (the breakdown of blood clots), and improve glucose homeostasis, but also how they interact with one another and sometimes cause side effects. 

Dr. Brown received her A. B. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale and her M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed her clinical training and a fellowship in clinical pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. Prior to assuming the role of dean at Yale in 2020, Dr. Brown served for nine years as the chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she established herself as a national leader in the development of infrastructure to promote the success of physician-scientists. She founded the Vanderbilt Master of Science in Clinical Investigation program in 2000, served as Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Scientist Development at Vanderbilt from 2006 to 2010, and as Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology from 2009 to 2010.

Dr. Brown is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  She is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. She has served on the National Advisory Research Resources Council and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health.