Principle Investigator
Associate Professor, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Genetics
Email: Lior.Zangi@mssm.edu
Bio: Lior Zangi, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. He completed his education and training at the Weizmann Institute of Science and at Harvard University. He has established a new method, mRNA based, for gene delivery to promote cardiovascular regeneration. Currently, Dr. Zangi’s laboratory investigates cellular and organ level regenerative mechanisms that can contribute to new therapeutic approaches to repair and regenerate the heart following myocardial infarction.
Instructor
Dr. Magdalena M. Żak, PhD
Email: Magdalena.zak@mssm.edu
Bio: Magdalena completed her Masters degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland. She went on to receive her training in Molecular Biosciences at Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) where she received her PhD from Autonomous University of Madrid. During her PhD she worked on gene therapy to improve vascularization of the heart post-myocardial infraction and visited the group of Prof. Michele De Palma at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland for further training in using viral vectors in a therapeutic setting. Here in the Zangi lab, Magdalena works on expanding the use of modified RNA technology in gene therapy towards cell specificity and non-invasive delivery methods which can be used in many disease settings.
Lab Manager
Ann Anu Kurian, MS
Email: ann.kurian@mssm.edu
Bio: Ann received her bachelor of engineering in biotechnology at Lovely Professional University, Punjab, India, and her Master of Science in Biomedical Research from Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Here in the Zangi lab, Ann is responsiblefor modified mRNA synthesis, one of the most important techniques of the lab. She is responsible for ordering and organizing materials and supplies for experiments that have been done routinely in the Zangi lab. Ann is well trained in molecular biology techniques and responsible for conducting ex vivo screening experiments and in vivo experiments in small animals to assist the work of postdocs in the lab.
Senior Associate Researcher
Jimeen Yoo
Email: jimeen.yoo2@mssm.edu
Bio: Jimeen received her bachelor of arts at Williams College and her Master of Biomedical Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her Master’s thesis work was titled “Enhancing atrial- specific gene expression using a calsequestrin cis-regulatory module 4 with a sarcolipin promoter.” In her work, she used an atrial-specific promoter in conjunction with an enhancer sequence to make an atrial-specific vector. Jimeen’s interest in cell specific vectors lead her to Dr. Zangi’s lab. Here she has worked closely with Dr. Kaur and Dr. Zák in the development of cell and organ-specific modified RNAs for therapeutic applications in cardiac diseases.
PhD Student
Gayatri Mainkar
Email:Gaya.mainkar@icahn.mssm.edu
Bio:Gayatri received her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). While at UCSD, she worked on uncovering novel lipid mediators of pluripotency maintenance and cardiomyocyte differentiation using mass spectrometry-based metabolomics under the mentorship of Dr. Mohit Jain. Gayatri joined the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2021 and then committed to the Zangi lab for her Ph.D. studies in 2022. She is now working on developing a specific modified mRNA translational system for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis.
Master of Biomedical Sciences Student
Matthew Adjmi
Email:matthew.adjmi@mssm.edu
Bio:Matthew completed his Bachelors of Science degree at Fordham University shortly before volunteering in the Zangi Lab in 2022. He is now an associate researcher at the Zangi Lab, and is involved in a few of the projects we are running. To further his training in scientific research, Matthew is currently pursuing a Masters in Biomedical Science at the Icahn School of Medicine. Matthew has assisted in projects focusing on breast cancer, post-infarction improvement of the heart, and decreasing cardiotoxicity. He hopes to explore novel applications for our research and further diversify the Zangi Lab portfolio.