Dzau was born in Shanghai, Republic of China. His father owned a chemical manufacturing company. He and his family fled to Hong Kong to escape from the Chinese Communist government. He received both his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology and his M.D. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. A leading cardiovascular scholar, Dzau was the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School's Brigham and Women's Hospital, as well as Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. He then became the Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Medical Center. Dzau is currently the James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University. In July 2014, he was elected for a six-year term as President of the then Institute of Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was the previous Chairman of the National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Committee, and he served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of NIH. Dzau has made a significant impact on medicine through seminal research in cardiovascular medicine and genetics, his pioneering work in the discipline of vascular medicine, and his leadership in health care innovation. His seminal research laid the foundation for the development of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors, which are used globally for the treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. He pioneered gene therapy for vascular disease, being the first to introduce DNA decoy molecules to block transcriptions as gene therapy in humans. Dzau's wife, Ruth, is the president of The Second Step, a nonprofit charitable organization that provides housing and transnational programs for domestic violence victims. They have two daughters, Jacqueline and Merissa. Dzau is on the honor roll of the Jewish Federation of Durham Chapel Hill and has been a speaker at the Federation's Ignite talks.
