Reza Ardehali,M.D.,Ph.D. is a clinician-scientist who studies the molecular mechanisms involved in heart development and disease. Of particular interest to Dr. Ardehali is the intrinsic signaling that triggers cardiac regeneration early in life,molecular events that regulate developmental decisions instructing cardiac progenitors to adopt a specific cell fate,and delivery approaches of cardiovascular progenitors into an injured heart. His laboratory also uses pluripotent stem cells for disease modeling,as well as for regenerative purposes. They have initiated pre-clinical studies of transplantation of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in large animal myocardial infarction models. He is a practicing cardiologist,specializing in advanced heart failure and heart transplantation.