Auburn

Steven D. Presley, M.D. specializes in internal medicine and was the founding Program Director of the EAMC Internal Medicine Residency Program where he continues to serve as a preceptor. He also is a part-time hospitalist with IMA Hospitalists@EAMC where he worked for 13 years prior to his program director role and served as medical director of the group for 10 years.

He is a graduate of Auburn University, earned his medical degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and completed his residency at the Baptist Health System in Birmingham. He earned his Master of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Presley also serves as VCOM-Auburn Director of Medical Student Education (DSME) for students in their clinical years at EAMC. He has completed multiple overseas medical mission trips as well as serving as a physician at Camp Seale Harris for diabetic children. Dr. Presley chose to pursue a career in internal medicine because he enjoys the relationship with patients as their primary caregiver and for the breadth of management that Internal Medicine entails.

Dr. Presley has been married to his wife, Leanne, for 26 years. They have two children, Ben and Annabeth. Dr. Presley has skydived over the Gulf of Mexico; some of his other hobbies include hiking, reading, traveling, watching Auburn University sports, and his newfound love of pickleball!

Current research focus is on regulatory mechanisms of skeletal and cardiac muscle adaptation. Muscle atrophy and contractile and metabolic adaptations occur in skeletal muscle in response to inactivity and various disease states. Similar changes occur in heart muscle in response to disease states such as hypertension, which can result in compensatory hypertrophy and ultimately heart failure. My laboratory has identified several novel long-non coding (lnc) RNAs that are implicated in gene regulation, particularly those of the myosin heavy chain gene family of motor proteins. These lncRNAs may serve as feasible therapeutic targets to restore muscle function compromised by disuse or disease.

My research interests are 3D-printing and diabetic ulcerations.  The goal of this research is to develop genetically targeted, patient-specific medications.  This will allow our medication therapies to have an enhanced therapeutic effect with fewer toxicities.



Also, I have an interest in COVID-19 vaccinations with two parts. First, I would like to see pharmacy technicians be able to give vaccinations and collect data regarding this effort.  This is something that is already happening in some of our states and it will most likely be allowed in our state (Alabama) by the beginning of the year.  Second, I would like to see if we could tabulate the adverse effects seen with the vaccine.

Education