UCLA scientists elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation

Dr. Reza Ardehali and Dr. Siavash Kurdistani – both of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA – have been elected as members of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, one of the oldest and most esteemed nonprofit honor societies of physician-scientists.

Ardehali, associate professor of medicine and cardiology, treats people with advanced heart failure and studies the molecular processes involved in heart development and disease. His current research is focused on using stem cells to generate cells for transplantation to regenerate the heart by replacing scar tissue and restoring heart function.

Kurdistani, professor of biological chemistry and co-director of the gene regulation program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, is a research pioneer in cancer epigenetics, a field that studies inherited information other than that encoded in DNA. Kurdistani’s laboratory addresses the function of histones and their post-translational modifications in regulating gene expression, and several of his discoveries have changed the way we view the role of epigenetics in normal and cancerous cells.

Ardehali and Kurdistani are among 80 new members from 46 different institutions who are being honored for their significant contributions made to the understanding of human diseases, both in the laboratory and the clinic.

The new members will be officially inducted into the Society in April as part of the 2019 Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the American Physician-Scientists Association Joint Meeting in Chicago.