Dr. Sina Rabbany is the Jean Nerken Distinguished Professor of Engineering and the founding director of the Bioengineering Program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Rabbany’s research is in the field of cellular and tissue engineering as applied to the vascular system.
He and colleagues from Weill Cornell Medical College recently served on a research team that found that damaged or diseased organs may someday be restored with an injection of endothelial cells – the cells that make up the structure of blood vessels. This could someday eliminate the need for donated organs and transplants. The findings of this research were published in Stem Cell Journal in January 2014.
Listen to Dr. Rabbany discuss how his recent research may one day eliminate the need for organ donations
This groundbreaking research found that endothelial cells drive regeneration because they adapt and learn how to act like an organ-specific blood vessel. Previously it was thought that blood vessels were the same throughout the body. Because the endothelial cells are versatile, they can be transplanted into different tissues, become educated by the tissue, and acquire the characteristics of the native endothelial cells.
Dr. Rabbany joined Hofstra in 1990 as an assistant professor of engineering to create the Hofstra Bioengineering Program, the first on Long Island. He was appointed associate professor in 1993, and promoted to professor of engineering in 1998.
He has recently developed a technology to generate vascular constructs by utilizing scaffolds to promote 3-D structures, which provide physical cues for cell orientation and spreading. Currently he is working on elucidating the role of biochemical and biophysical environment on vascular cells and engineering of vascularized constructs.
The author of more than 60 publications and patents in the areas of cardiovascular dynamics, biosensors, vascular biology and tissue engineering/regenerative medicine, Dr. Rabbany has received funding from numerous organizations, including the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of Naval Research. He received the Young Investigators Award from the Cardiovascular Systems Dynamics Society in 1992, the Achievement Award presented by the Engineers Joint Committee of Long Island in 2003, and the Athanasios Papoulis Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2009, and was selected to be a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical & Biological Engineering in 2012. He is also a Hofstra University Honors College faculty mentor.