Shahin Rafii, MD

Shahin Rafii, MD is a Hematologist-Oncologist and Arthur B. Belfer Professor of Genetic Medicine, Division Chief of Regenerative Medicine, Founding Director of Hartman Institute for Therapeutic Organ Regeneration and Ansary Stem Cell Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is a physician-scientist, who has conceived of the foundational knowledge of blood vessel endothelial cell organotypic development and heterogeneity, enabling translation of the pro-regenerative functions of vascular cells to clinic for organ repair and tumor targeting.

He pioneered the paradigm-shifting concept that endothelial cells within each organ and tumor are highly unique and specialized. He devised genetic models to prove that endothelial cells form vascular niches that by supplying instructive angiocrine factors choreograph stem cell self-renewal, organ repair or aberrantly incite malignant stem cells provoking tumor growth and metastasis. He has identified previously unknown transcription factors that reprogram human non-vascular cells into endothelial cells. He has discovered several organotypic transcription factors that confer generic endothelial cells with their tissue-specific vascular signatures.

He has engineered innovative technologies to manufacture the first-in-man infusional endothelial cells to repair injured organs. He has founded vascular biotechnological companies enabling phase III trials for infusion of bioengineered endothelial cells into cancer patients treated with aggressive chemotherapy mitigating intestinal and hematopoietic injuries. Recently, he has engineered adaptable human endothelial cells that functionally vascularizes organoids, including tumor organoids setting stage for pre-clinical pharmaceutical drug screening. Rafii’s translational work to repair tissue damage by implantation of pre-endothelialized mini-organs has opened a new chapter in long-awaited vascular therapeutics. This novel platform could also be leveraged to interrogate the potential of immune cells for tumor targeting.