Kilmer McCully, M.D.

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

VA Boston Healthcare System

Areas of Interest: 

homocysteine metabolism, atherosclerosis, cancer, dementia, diseases of aging, oxidative phosphorylation

Biography & Research: 

Dr. McCully is internationally recognized for discovering a link between homocysteine and heart disease – a major scientific breakthrough of the 20th century – and further development of the homocysteine theory of arteriosclerosis. In 1997 Dr. McCully authored his first book, The Homocysteine Revolution, which has been the subject of much media attention with articles appearing in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, and several national health newsletters. In addition, he appeared on several national television programs, including NBC News, The Today Show, Fox News Healthline, 20/20 ABC Newsmagazine, and The View. He has authored several book chapters and 85 research articles. His second book, The Heart Revolution, was authored with his daughter, Martha McCully, and was published in 1999. His third book, Pioneer of the Homocysteine Theory, was published in 2013. From 1981 until 2001 Dr. McCully served as Pathologist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Prior to this position, Dr. McCully was Associate Pathologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. He was also appointed Visiting Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Connecticut and Associate Professor of Pathology at Brown University. He is Consultant in Pathology and former Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Director of the Boston Area Consolidated Laboratories at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, and Medical Director of the Network Consolidated Laboratories for all Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in New England. He also serves as Associate Clinical Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. McCully is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, where he earned degrees in chemistry, biochemistry and medicine. He received fellowship training in biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics at the National Institutes of Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Glasgow University in Scotland, and Harvard University. During his tenure at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in Providence and Boston, Dr. McCully continued his studies of homocysteine metabolism in arteriosclerosis, cancer and diseases of aging. He has published over 80 original research articles in peer reviewed journals in his field of investigation from 1961 until 2016. He has also published three monographs, several book chapters, and several reviews in medical journals, two books for the general reader, a book of his scientific memoirs and an edited book of chapters by authors in the homocysteine field. He currently holds seven U.S. patents for anti-neoplastic and anti-atherogenic derivatives of homocysteine thiolactone.