Dr. O’Connell graduated from The University of Illinois with a BSc in engineering in 1990, wining the College of Engineering Senior Design Competition developing a system for the measurement of isolated cardiac myocyte contractility. Subsequently, Dr. O’Connell graduated from the University of Michigan with a Ph.D. in Pharmacology, and his thesis research focused on the role of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 on cardiac development. After completing his PhD, Dr. O’Connell joined the laboratory of Paul Simpson MD as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California at San Francisco, and was an NIH-funded post-doctoral fellow in the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute and subsequent an AHA-postdoctoral fellow. In 2000, Dr.

O’Connell was appointed the Lead Scientist for the Laboratory for the Development of Signaling Assays, one of eight laboratories comprising The Alliance for Cellular Signaling, headed by Dr. Alfred Gilman. In 2004, Dr. O’Connell joined the faculty in the Cardiovascular Health Research Center at Sanford Research/USD and in 2009 was promoted to Associate Director of Cardiovascular Research. In 2013, Dr. O’Connell joined the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology at The University of Minnesota and is currently an Associate Professor. Currently, he holds the position of the University of Minnesota Land Grant Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology. He is also the founder of Septacore Biotechnology, a company dedicated to developing new drugs to treat hypertension in chronic kidney disease. The primary focus of Dr. O’Connell’s research is G-protein coupled receptors in heart failure.