Professor Mo Ebrahimkhani’s research focuses on synthetic biology and regenerative medicine. His lab engineers human organoids—such as liver tissue—from stem cells, using genetic circuits and machine learning to direct tissue development and maturation. These designer organoids are used for applications like disease modeling, drug discovery, and potential organ transplantation. Notably, his team created functional liver organoids capable of extending life when transplanted into mice with liver failure. He integrates systems biology and CRISPR-based technologies in his work to explore tissue repair and immune modulation.
"Vascularized human brain organoids as a model of the brain–peripheral axis in HIV-1 neuropathogenesis"
Selvam S, Dos Reis RS, Wagner MCE, Krishnakumar R, Keshavarz K, Ebrahimkhani MR, Ayyavoo V. Sci Rep. 2026
"Precision targeting of β-catenin induces tumor reprogramming and immunity in hepatocellular cancers"
Lehrich BM, Delgado ER, Yasaka TM, Liu S, Cao C, Liu Y, Taheri MN, Guan X, Koeppen H, Singh S, Meadows V, Liu JJ, Singh-Varma A, Krutsenko Y, Poddar M, Hitchens TK, Foley LM, Liang B, Rialdi A, Rai RP, Patel P, Riley M, Bell A, Raeman R, Dadali T, Luke JJ, Guccione E, Ebrahimkhani MR, Lujambio A, Chen X, Maier M, Wang Y, Broom W, Tao J, Monga SP. NatCommun. 2025, 16, 1, 5009
"How can concepts from ecology enable insights about cellular communities?"
Weiss A, Gralka M, Faust K, Gutierrez DB, Pienta K, Zhou X, Venturelli OS, Gibbons S, Ebrahimkhani MR, Shakiba N, Ma S. Cell Syst. 2024,15, 11, P1103
"A genetically inducible endothelial niche enables vascularization of human kidney organoids with multilineage maturation and emergence of renin expressing cells"
Maggiore JC, LeGraw R, Przepiorski A, Velazquez J, Chaney C, Vanichapol T, Streeter E, Almuallim Z, Oda A, Chiba T, Silva-Barbosa A, Franks J, Hislop J, Hill A, Wu H, Pfister K, Howden SE, Watkins SC, Little MH, Humphreys BD, Kiani S, Watson A, Stolz DB, Davidson AJ, Carroll T, Cleaver O, Sims-Lucas S, Ebrahimkhani MR, Hukriede NA. Kidney Int. 2024,106, 6, 1086-1100
"Modelling post-implantation human development to yolk sac blood emergenceModelling post-implantation human development to yolk sac blood emergence"
Hislop J, Song Q, Keshavarz F K, Alavi A, Schoenberger R, LeGraw R, Velazquez JJ, Mokhtari T, Taheri MN, Rytel M, Chuva de Sousa Lopes SM, Watkins S, Stolz D, Kiani S, Sozen B, Bar-Joseph Z, Ebrahimkhani MR. Nature. 2024, 626, 7998, 367-376