Dr. Epstein graduated from Harvard College in 1983, Harvard Medical School in 1988 and completed his Residency and Fellowship in Medicine and Cardiology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he also completed an HHMI Postdoctoral Fellowship in Genetics. In 1996 he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania. From 2006-2015, he served as Chairman of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and Scientific Director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute. From 2015-2023, he served as Executive Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. He is currently the William Wikoff Smith Professor and Interim Senior Vice President for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine.

Dr. Epstein has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Outstanding Investigator Award from the American Federation for Medical Research and the Harriet P. Dustan Award for Science as Related to Medicine from the American College of Physicians. He is a member of the Philadelphia College of Physicians, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of Physicians, Past President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Epstein’s research has focused on the molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular development and implications for understanding and treating human disease. Most recently, he has collaborated with Drs. Drew Weissman, Carl June and others to pioneer the use of mRNA and lipid nanoparticles to engineer CAR T cells in vivo for the treatment of cardiac fibrosis and other disorders – work that has been highlighted in the New York Times and featured on the cover of Science magazine.