Meet Tzung Hsiai Lab UCLA - Cardiovascular Engineering Research Laboratory

Tzung K Hsiai
Maud Cady Guthman Endowed Chair, Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering

Dr. Tzung K. Hsiai
Dr. Hsiai's research focuses on advanced imaging sensors to elucidate mechanotransduction underlying tissue injury and repair. Dr. Hsiai received his undergraduate education from Columbia University and his medical training from the University of Chicago. He completed his internship, residency and NIH-funded cardiovascular fellowship at UCLA School of Engineering and Medicine under the mentorship of Professor Chih-Ming Ho (Mechanical Engineering & Aerospace Engineering, Member of National Academy of Engineering). Dr. Hsiai was recruited to the University of Southern California Schools of Engineering and Medicine with an Early Career Endowed Chair. In 2014, he was recruited back to UCLA to promote team science, which led to the LA PRISMS Center (U54 EB022002) connecting UCLA Bioinformatics and Microbiome Research with USC’s Environmental Health Sciences Center. Dr. Hsiai directs the UCLA Cardiovascular Engineering and Light-Sheet Imaging Laboratory, which has established a track record of converging engineering with medicine through NIH-funded team science projects with partner institutions, Caltech (R01HL118650), Stanford (HL129727), USC (HL118650), and UC San Diego (HD069305).

Since joining UCLA in 2014, Dr. Hsiai has mentored numerous trainees at all levels and developed a peer-mentor system to match engineering trainees with physician-scientists . Trainees from his group have become leaders in academia (recipients of NSF CAREER, NIH R01’s and AHA SDG and CDA awards) and industry (Vice President, Edwards Lifesciences). His junior trainees have embarked on MD/PhD Programs at Caltech, Stanford, and Yale, while senior trainees have been recruited for tenure track positions, including Assistant Professor at University of Washington, Professor at the University of Science & Technology in China, Associate Professor at USC, Assistant Professor at UCLA, and Assistant Professor at UT Arlington/Southwestern. In collaboration with NHLBI Deputy Director, Michelle Bennett, Dr. Hsiai's team has promoted trainees to organize workshops on “Effective Collaboration & Diversity in Scientific Teams.”

As evidence of flexibility and adaptability to new research opportunities, Dr. Hsiai's research team has established expertise in multi-scale imaging; his team has developed 3-D electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) to identify vulnerable plaque in vivo (in mice, rabbit, and swine models); and his group has collaborated with experts in vascular mechanobiology (UCSD), zebrafish biology (Duke), cardiac regeneration (Stanford), advanced imaging and sensing (Caltech), and Computational Fluid Dynamics (Stanford). One of his group's most creative projects has been integration of 4-D light-sheet imaging with zebrafish genetics to elucidate biomechanical forces underlying mechanotransduction and cardiac trabeculation (HL129727). As further evidence of thier flexibility and teamwork, they have collaborated with UCLA and USC environmental and nanoscience experts as well as the UCLA Microbiome Center to study the role of the microbiota-gut-vascular axis and exposure to ultrafine particles in atherosclerosis (ES029395).

Dr. Hsiai has served as the Chair of the American Physiological Society Joint Meeting with Biomedical Engineering Society, Chair of NIH 3-D printing study section, and member of AHA Scientific Planning Committee. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Member of National Institutes of Health Bioengineering, Biotechnology, and Surgical Science Study Section, Fellow of American College of Cardiology, Fellow of American Heart Association, College Fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the recipient of an American Heart Association John J. Simpson Outstanding Research Achievement Award, USC School of Engineering Junior Faculty Research Award, Excellence in Teaching Award from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Greater Los Angeles VA Cardiology Fellowship Program, and UCLA SEAS Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.

The vision of Dr. Hsiai's cardiovascular engineering training program is 3-fold: 1) to inspire excellence in team science, 2) to empower trainees and up-and-coming faculty, and 3) to enrich community engagement. His group's mission is to bridge advances in multi-institutional and team science with education, discovery, community services, and patient care.

Current Members

Tomohiro Yokota, Ph.D
Assistant Researcher Step III, Department of Medicine

Ph.D, Physiology, Waseda University, Japan
B.S. - M.S., Molecular Biology, Waseda University / Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Japan
Research Topic: Cardiac Maturation, Cardiac Remodeling, Stress-Induced Signaling
Dr. Susana Cavallero, Ph.D
Assistant Project Scientist, Department of Medicine

Ph.D, Cardiovascular Pathophysiology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
B.S-M.S, Biochemistry, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
PharmD, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Research Topic: Vascular development and regeneration
Peng Zhao, M.D., Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Medicine

M.D., Clinical Medicine, China Medical University, China.
Ph.D., Medical Science, Shinshu University, Japan
Research Topic: Heart Development, Cardiac Regeneration, Cardiac Fibrosis and Stem Cell Research.
Enbo Zhu, Ph.D
Assistant Project Scientist, Department of Medicine

Ph.D, Material Science & Engineering, UCLA
B.S., Biotechnology, Jilin University, China
B.S., Chemistry, Jilin University, China
Research Topic: Materials Engineering, T Cell Engineering, Electron and Light-Sheet Imaging
Seul-Ki Park, Ph.D
Assistant Project Scientist

Ph.D, Medical Biotechnology, SoonChunHyang University
B.S. - M.S., Genetic Engineering, SoonChunHyang University
Research Topic: Development Cardiac Trabeculation
Dr. Kaidong Wang, Ph.D
Post-Doctoral Researcher

Ph.D, Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, China
B.E., Pharmaceutical Engineering, East China University Of Science And Technology, China
Research Topic: Invasive sensors, light-sheet imaging, nanomaterials and surface chemistry
Jae Min Cho, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Scholar

Ph.D, Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, University of Utah
B.S. - M.S., Health and Exercise Science, Korea National Sport University, South Korea
Research Topic: Neuroimmune Cardiovascular Interface
Mehrdad Roustaei
PhD Student in Bioengineering

B.S, Mechanical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran
M.S, Mechanical Engineering,Sharif University of Technology, Iran
Research Topic: Cardiovascular Biomechanics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, scRNA Sequencing Analysis
Jing Wang, Ph.D
Ph.D Student in Bioengineering

M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University
B.S., Bioengineering, University of Missouri
B.E., Bioengineering, East China University of Science and Technology
Research Topic: Light-Sheet Imaging, Bioinformatics, Mechanobiology, Zebrafish Cardiac Development
Shaolei Wang, Ph.D
Ph.D Student in Bioengineering

M.S., Material Physics and Chemistry, Nanjing University, China
B.S., Materials Forming and Control Engineering, Tianjin University, China
Research Topic: Implantable Bioelectronics and Wearable Devices for the Healthcare System
Justin Chen
Master’s Student in Bioengineering

PB.S., Bioengineering, UCLA
Research Topic: Diagnostic Biosensors and Bioelectronics
Yaran Zhang
Master’s Student in Bioengineering

B.E., Biomedical Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, China
Research Topic: Retinal Vasculature Analysis with Light-Sheet Imaging
Brian Arianpour
B.S., Bioengineering, UCSD

Research Topic: Wearable Devices for Medical Applications
Alejandro Miron Jabalera
B.S., Bioengineering, UABC

Research Topic: Biomedical Data Science & Analytics
Sheila Gonzalez Ramos
Engineering Staff I

B.S., Physiological Sciences, UCLA
Research Topic: Chemotherapy Induced Cardiotoxicity and Cardiac Regeneration
Charlie Zheng
Undergraduate Student in Molecular Cell and Developmental Biology

UCLA
Research Topic: Studying Cardiac Morphogenesis via Zebrafish Model
Jonah Nahoul
Undergraduate Student in General Biology

UCLA
Research Topic: Neuroimmune Cardiovascular Interface
Parinaz Abiri
MD/PhD UCLA

PhD in Bioengineering at UCLA
B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from UC Irvine
Summa Cum Laude, David Geffen UCLA MSTP Scholarship Recipient
Dr. Qinyu Cui, Ph.D
Post-Doctoral Researcher

Ph.D, Eletrical engineering, University of Michigan
Research Topic: Wearable and flexiable sensors
Dr. Sandro Satta, Ph.D
Post-Doctoral Researcher

Ph.D in Life Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
M.S., Molecular Biology, Summa cum Laude, University of Sassari, Italy
B.S., Biotechnology, University of Sassari, Italy
Research Topic: Shear stress and vascular protection
Varun Gudapati
MD, DGSOM, UCLA

Orthopedic Surgery Residency, UCLA
B.S, Biongineering, Duke
Zhaoqiang Wang
PhD Student in Bioengineering

B.E, Optoelectronic Information, Huazhong Univ of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
Alexander Shon Chen
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA

Graduate School of Business, Stanford University
Yale University, BS, Computer Science
Khoa Vu
B.S., Computational and Systems Biology, UCLA

Research Topics: Single Cell Sequencing and Computational Fluid Dynamics.

Past Members

Dr. Ana Blazquez Medela, Ph.D
Assistant Project Scientist

Ph.D in Physiology, University of Salamanca, Spain
MS in Biochemistry, University of Salamanca, Spain
MS in Biology, University of Salamanca, Spain
Dr. Angela Lai, Ph.D
Post-Doctora, MIT

Ph.D, Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, Boston University
Research Topic: Multi-scale thrombosis/hemostasis and Microfluidics
Ryan O’Donnell
Research Associate

B.S, Chemistry, Towson University, Baltimore, MD
M.S, Biology, American University, Washington, DC
M.S, Education, Pace University, New York, NY
Research Topic: Cardiomyopathy in zebrafish and rodents
Dr. Kyung In Baek, PhD
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Goergia Tech/Emory University

B.S., Bioengineering, University of Utah
Research Topic: Vascular Repair
Chih-Chiang Chang
PhD Candidate in Bioengineering

B.S.: Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University
M.S.: Biomedical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
Cynthia Chen
PhD Student in Bioengineering

B.S, in Bioengineering, UCLA
Hamed Bourenane, MD, MS
Master student in Bioengineering

3rd year cardiology resident in Rennes, France
Scott T. Meyer, BS
MD, ULCA

NYU Internal Medicine
B.S, Biongineering, Stanford
Dr. Yicheng Ding, PhD
Assistant Professor

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Peking University, China
B.S., Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, China
Research Topic: Multi-scale Optical Imaging
Dr. Rene Parkard, MD, Ph.D
Assistant Professor at UCLA Medical School

Ph.D., Cellular, Molecular and Integrative Physiology, UCLA
M.D., University of Geneva, Switzerland
B.S., College Voltaire Geneve, Switzerland
Dr. Arthur Ko, Ph.D
Research Assitant

Ph.D, Molecular Biology, UCLA
B.C.S., Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Research Topic: Genetics and genomics
Jeff Hsu
PhD Candidate in Molecular, Celluler & Integrative Physiology, UCLA

PhD Student in Molecular, Celluler & Integrative Physiology, UCLA
UCLA School of Medicine Specialty Training And Advanced Research (STAR) fellow
M.D, UCLA
M.S, Mechanical Engineering, MIT
B.S, Mechanical Engineering, MIT
Research Topic: Cardiac valve formation
Dr. Rongsong Li, PhD
Project Scientist and Adjunct Professors
Professor at Shenzhen Technology University

Ph.D., Biochemistry, Tuft University
M.S., Biochemistry, Shanghai Institute of Biochemisty
Chinese Academic of Science B.S., Biochemistry, Wuhan University, China
Juhyun Lee
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Assistant Professor at UT Arlinton

M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
B.S., Bioengineering, University of Utah
American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship Awardee
Dr. Nelson Jen, PhD
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Research Director in Biotech

Ph.D., Bioengineering, UCLA
M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, UC Irvine
Dr. Tyler Beebe, PhD
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Biosense Webster, Johnson & Johnson

Ph.D., Bioengineering, UCLA
M.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California
Dr. Jianguo Ma, PhD
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Associate Professor

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina State University
M.S., Acoustics, Shandong University, China
B.S., Physics, Shandong University, China
Dr. Peng Fei, Ph.D
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Professor

School of Optical and Electrical Information
Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China
Dr. Hung Cao, Ph.D
Graduate Students and Post-doctorals
Assistant Professor

Electrical Engineering, University of Washington
Amir Kaboodrangifaem

B.S. in Bioengineering, UCLA 2015
M.S. in Bioengineering, UCLA 2016
Bill Zhou, MSIII
Medical Student

B.S. in Bological Science, USC
Steve Zhou, MSII
Medical Student

B.S. Biomedical Engineering, USC 2014
MD Candidate, David Geffen School of Medicine 2019
USC Trustee Full Tuition Merit Scholar
W.V.T Rusch Engineering Honors
"Biomechanical Evaluation of Three Fixation Methods for Distal Fibula Fractures.” Currently under review.
UCLA Mobile Clinic Project Medical Coordinator
UCLA Geffenotes A Cappella President
Junjie Chen
PhD Student in Bioengineering

M.S, Bioengineering, UCLA
B.S, in Bioengineering, UCLA
Dr. Yunpeng Zhang, Ph.D
Post-Doctoral Researcher

Ph.D, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Peking University, China
B.S, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Peking University, China
Research Topic: Single mRNA sequencing
Brent Han
Staff Research Associate II

B.S., Pharmacology and Drug Development, University of Southern California
Research Topic: Ultrafine Particles, Microplastics, Zebrafish Cardiac Development

Undergrad Students

Swarna Das
Undergraduate student in Bioengineering

UCLA
Henry Phan
Undergraduate student in Human Biology & Society

UCLA
Kimberly Uehisa
Undergraduate student in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics and Global Health minor

UCLA
Nina Song
Undergraduate student in Chemistry and Biochemistry

UCLA
Janice Chang
Undergraduate student in Bioengineering

UCLA
Michael Chen
Undergraduate student in Bioengineering

UCLA
Chadi Nahal
Undergraduate student in Bioengineering

UCLA
Hilary Yen
Undergrad Student

Undergraduate student at UCLA major in Bioengineering
Jintian Lyu
Summer Intern

Department of Pharmacy, Peking University
Kevin Ma
Undergrad Student

Undergraduate student at UCLA major in Bioengineering
Jonathan Kao
Undergrad Student
Megan Chang
Undergrad Student

Biology and Music
Pomona College

Visiting Scholars

Yi Qian
Visiting Scholar

Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
Hongli Li, MD
Visiting Scholar

Chief Physician, Division of Cardiology, Shaghai General Hospital
Yunfei Deng, Ph.D
Visting Scolar

Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University

Collaborators

UCLA Atherosclerosis Research Unit
Mohammad Navab
Srinivasa Reddy
Alan Fogelman
UCLA Cardiovascular Research Laboratory
Thao P. Nguyen
James N. Weiss
UCLA Valvular and vascular Calcification
Linda L. Demer
Yin Titut
Kristina Bostrom
UCLA Clinical Nutrition
Zhaoping Li
California Institute of Technology
Y. C. Tai (MEMS)
Hyuck Choo (Optics)
Nal-Chang Yeh (Physics)
Stanford University
Alison L. Marsden (Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering)
University of Southern California
J C. C. Kuo (Electrical Engineering & Computer Science)
Kirk Shung , Qifa Zhou
(NIH Ultrasonic Transducer Resource Center)
University of California, San Diego
Neil Chi (Developmental Biology)
Yury Miller (Cardiology)
Medtronic
Fei Yu, PhD, Senior Engineer
Rebecca Gottlieb, PhD, Senior Director, Advanced Research
Walter Baxter, PhD, Principal Scientist
Edwards Lifesciences
Lisong Ai, PhD
Ming Wu(Senior Vice President for Research at Edwards Lifesciences)
Mayo Clinic
Xiaolei Xu, PhD
Director, Zebrafish Genetics Laboratory
Johnson & Johnson
Rajesh Pendekanti, PhD
Director, R&D @ Biosense Webster
Amgen
Linda Narhi, PhD
Scientific Executive Director, Process Development; Amgen, Inc.