Dr. Alexander is an internationally recognized expert in the design and conduct of clinical trials. He is known for successful design and implementation of clinical trials across modalities, phase, and sponsoring agency as well as collaborative leadership in the clinical research community. He has taken drugs from first-in-man to Phase 3, and he has led over a dozen successful Phase 2-4 clinical trials. His research has been focused on the development of new anticoagulants and cardiac surgery. He was instrumental in developing factor Xa inhibitors in atrial fibrillation (AF) and led two large phase 3 trials on apixaban, a novel factor Xa inhibitor. These trials paved the way for FDA approval of apixaban in 2014. He was the principal investigator for the PREVENT-IV trial, a study of a novel E2F transcription factor decoy to prevent vein graft failure in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and is one of few non-surgeons on the steering committee of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Cardiac Surgery Clinical Trials Network (CTSN) where he continues to design and conduct important trials in cardiac surgery. He is the Director of Cardiovascular Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). He is serves the broader research community as the co-chair of Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative, a member of the steering committee the NHLBI-funded Cardiothoracic Surgery Clinical Trials Network, and as the chair of the VA Cooperative Studies Program Scientific Evaluation Committee.