Dr. Mohammed Mashali is a Research Scientist specializing in Physiology and Cell Biology at the Ohio State University. His research endeavors are primarily focused on the mechanisms of myocardial contractility and kinetics in the context of heart failure progression. Additionally, Dr. Mashali investigates the impact of aging on the key mechanisms regulating intracellular calcium in the human heart. He is an active member of the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the Biophysical Society. Through his affiliations and research, Dr. Mashali aims to leverage these insights to significantly contribute to the development of innovative therapies aimed at preventing or treating age-related cardiovascular diseases.
Isabelle Deschênes is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at The Ohio State University. She came to OSU in August 2019 from Case Western Reserve University where she was Director of the Heart and Vascular Research Center at The MetroHealth System. She holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from Universite Laval and completed her postdoctoral training in Cardiology at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on the molecular basis of cardiac arrhythmias. Her work combines molecular and electrophysiological techniques to study several inherited arrhythmias caused by defects in ion channels such as Long QT and Brugada Syndrome and more common forms of arrhythmias due to acquired disease states such as heart failure. Her work has focused on the study of the genotype–phenotype discordance observed in several inherited arrhythmias. The results obtained from her translational research focus on incomplete penetrance in inherited arrhythmias have also been applied to a more basic focus, allowing her to make fundamental findings on ion channel structure, assembly, trafficking, and transcriptional regulation, all of which contribute to the development of arrhythmias.
Dr. Nancy Saad is a valued member of the research team at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, holding both a Ph.D. in Cardiac Physiology and Cell Biology and an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Since 2019, her role as a Research Scientist has centered on the study of the contractile and kinetic properties of the failing human myocardium, as well as the investigation of how various diseases and pharmacological agents affect these cardiac properties. Additionally, she is interested in studying the differences in contractile protein phosphorylation and expression at various ages in human myocardial tissue. Her research efforts also include investigating the impact of dysfunctional skeletal muscle relaxation on muscular dystrophy disease in mice. She is a member of several scientific societies, including the American Heart Association, Biophysical Society, Heart Failure Society of America, and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Honor Society. Her ultimate research objectives are to elucidate the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie human heart disease, particularly heart failure, and to develop new preventive and therapeutic measures against this global health issue, which is the leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide.
