Dr. Khan’s lab focuses on cardiovascular regeneration through the use of stem-cell therapy. The damaged heart following a myocardial infarction (MI) leaves a scar that weakens the heart muscle which ultimately leads to heart failure. As promising as stem-cell therapy is, there is a significant amount of optimization needed, due to the poor survival of stem cells in the ischemic heart, in order to effectively treat patients with myocardial infarction. Our lab is at the forefront as we focus on reprogramming human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into cardiac and endothelial lineage for repairing the failing heart tissue as well as discovering the mechanisms and conditions necessary to enhance and ensure the survival and engraftment of stem cells post transplantation into the ischemic myocardium. This therapeutic approach is meant to recover functionality lost in the damaged heart.

Dr. Khan’s lab also focuses on bioengineering a nanofiber cardiac patch capable of promoting angiogenesis in the ischemic heart. Remarkable progress has been made as transplantation has proven successful in small animal models with similar expectations in the large animal models ahead which will ultimately aid in clinical translation in the future.

Khan Lab Webpage