akidd@uab.edu
EDUCATION
YEAR
1983
1988
1992
DEGREE
MD
MS
Ph.D
FIELD OF STUDY
Medicine
Engineering
Biomed. Engineering
INSTITUTION
Shanghai Medical University, China
Tufts University, MA
University of Minnesota, MN
POSITION
YEAR
2015-present
2020-2021
POSITION
Professor of Medicine (tenured), Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine and School of Engineering, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
AHA Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences (BCVS), Vice Chair
RESEARCH
– In vivo hearts myocardial bioenergetic regulations using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and spectroscopy.
– Transplantation of autologous, allogenic, or xenogenic progenitor cells for myocardial repair.
– Scaffold design for enhanced delivery of hPSC derived cell therapy in failing hearts.
– Engineering of Human Functional Myocardium.
– Novel treatments reduce the risk of heart failure after acute myocardial infarction
BIO
Dr. Jianyi ‘Jay’ Zhang is a scientist with a career-long interest in myocardial bioenergetics of normal and failing hearts at basal – and high cardiac work states. In 2015, He moved the laboratory from the University of Minnesota after 28 years of service there, to the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), at the Heersink School of Medicine, and School of Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), as the founding chair of the new joint department of BME.
Dr. Zhang has extensive experience and knowledge in cardiovascular physiology, tissue engineering, pluripotent stem cell biology, myocardial metabolism in normal or ischemic conditions, hypertrophy, and heart failure using large animal models. He has served as the participant and leader of the AHA DeHaan Myogenesis Centers Initiative (2009-2013), the NHLBI-supported Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium (PCBC, 2009-16), Progenitor Cell Translational Consortium (PCTC, 2016-23). His lab has also worked extensively with engineering human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) and human embryonic stem cell (hESC) cell lines to manufacture functional cardiac tissues and explore their therapeutic potential in cardiovascular pathologies. These pre-vascularized cardiac patches that are physiologically similar to naïve cardiac tissue can be used for drug testing, deciphering mechanisms of congenital heart diseases, and potentially serve as therapeutic products for their ability to survive, electrically integrate, and exert long-term beneficial effects on failing heart. He also has extensive experience and knowledge in biomaterials, tissue engineering, and myocardial bioenergetics of in vivo normal or hypertrophied dysfunctional hearts using MR imaging, spectroscopy, and large animal models.
“I am fortunate to have mentored many talented trainees who have gone on to independent careers and leaders at prestigious academic (e,g., the Mayo Clinic, Washington University, University of Minnesota, Tufts University, as well as UAB) and private-sector (e.g., Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Genentech, Merck) institutions, and my lab remains exceedingly productive,” Zhang says.
EXTERNAL: Progenitor Cell Translational Consortium (PCTC)
PCTC Youtube site: https://www.youtube.com/@progenitorcelltranslationa1501/featured
2018 Cardiovascular Bioengineering (CVBE) Symposium at UAB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoBMhp7XVE&list=PL7SUYfYESdf2DD3aT3Y5-nr-kBFa2ueRi
2019 CVBE Symposium in Sydney, Australia: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7SUYfYESdf1r8HPddfe4QMvJ8kbRs48E&si=p0PDeDW3dNzkmrNY
5th Annual CVBE Meeting – Dec. 5, 2020: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gAiN477T27aPN1xCVtV5XgbzXwy_KCl&si=m_bH44RUtgmDRI4H
CVBE 2022, Germany: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gAiN477T27_hEehYFErFGWSehhfZO2r&si=GYeoWwI6rFM8v4ah
CVBE 2023, Japan: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6gAiN477T268Nk_-A896wUg_uquFEBoX&si=jNEkpsAqpfv9z0j2
CVBE 2024, Houston:
Day 1: https://vimeo.com/995086795/0be15d3322?share=copy
Day 2: https://vimeo.com/995094176/54a24a4b4f?share=copy
Day 3: https://vimeo.com/995094310/66f8857d6d?share=copy
