Dr. Patrick Thomas Ellinor’s laboratory work focuses on patients with heritable arrhythmias, with three broad areas of interest. First, they developed a cohort of patients with early-onset atrial fibrillation in order to explore the clinical and genetic features of this arrhythmia. Ongoing work includes a long-term follow-up study in the Massachusetts General Hospital Atrial Fibrillation Study; the mapping and characterization of atrial fibrillation genes in families; analyses of the role of de novo variation in atrial fibrillation; and characterization of biomarkers related to atrial fibrillation. Second, over the last five years Dr. Ellinor has had a close collaboration with investigators at the Framingham Heart Study on the epidemiology and genetics of atrial fibrillation. This collaboration has provided a unique opportunity for fellows to be able to undertake a wide range of projects and to experience different types of investigation ranging from epidemiology to basic science. Finally, in the last four years, he has helped to lead an international consortium of investigators studying the genetics of atrial fibrillation. They have completed multiple genome-wide association studies for atrial fibrillation and the PR interval. Current work in the Ellinor laboratory is focused on translating these genetic associations into specific mechanisms for atrial fibrillation. Outside of the laboratory, Dr. Ellinor maintains an active clinical practice in cardiovascular electrophysiology that complements his research interests.