Research Trainee Spotlight: Mohammadreza Kasravi, MD
Mohammadreza Kasravi, MD, explains that his thesis project in medical school truly sparked his lifelong passion for research. “While working on my thesis project, which was a liver bioengineering project, I fell in love with research and surgery.”
Dr. Kasravi grew up in Iran and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Shahid Beheshti University. His career goal from early on was to become a physician scientist and urologist in the United States, which is what led him to CHLA. “As a physician, I visited many patients with kidney problems and saw their suffering and the many complications of these diseases, so I decided to do my best as a researcher to find a way to help them,” Dr. Kasravi explains.
He now works as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Stefano Da Sacco, PhD, who conducts urology research and focuses on developmental biology and regenerative medicine at CHLA. “Conventional treatments, like kidney transplantation and dialysis, are expensive and not widely available to patients, so regenerative medicine approaches could be used as a great alternative for them,” Dr. Kasravi says. “In our lab, we research different regenerative medicine approaches to improve treatment options for these patients.”
Specifically, Dr. Kasravi works with the lab’s glomerulus-on-a-chip platform, which models the filtration barrier within the human kidney and serves as a functional platform to study novel therapies. Dr. Kasravi is also using this innovative invention to evaluate the underlying mechanisms contributing to different kidney diseases.
Outside of his work, Dr. Kasravi likes to get out into nature, work out at the gym, and spend time with friends.
