Ahmed Abdel-Latif Lab

Ahmed Abdel-Latif Lab Team

Heart failure affects around 23 million people worldwide each year; however, there are currently no curative treatments. The most common cause of heart failure is heart attack, during which an adult heart can lose up to one billion cardiomyocytes. Unlike many other organs in the body, the adult heart cannot regenerate itself and lost cardiomyocytes cannot be replaced. This leads to weakness of the heart muscle, scar formation, and eventually patient death.

Following a heart attack, the body's immune system initiates a reparative process to restore the damaged heart muscle. However, if this response persists for an extended period, it can exacerbate heart damage. The precise mechanisms governing the activation and regulation of this immune response remain unclear. Intriguingly, there exists a close association between the immune response and the regenerative capacity of the heart. In contrast to higher organisms, more primitive organisms and mammalian neonates possess a remarkable ability to regenerate their heart tissue, which has been attributed to their comparatively rudimentary (immature) immune response to tissue injury.

In our laboratory, we employ innovative comparative biology models to further investigate the intricate interactions between immune cells, mature cardiac cells, and stem cells, with the ultimate goal of enhancing cardiac functional recovery following a heart attack.

Ahmed Abdel-Latif, MD, PhD

Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Michigan Medicine and Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System

Michigan Medicine Profile
Publications: Michigan Experts Profile
Email: [email protected]

Research Staff

Annapurna Kuppa, MS, M.Tech
Annapurna Kuppa, MS, M.Tech

Annapurna Kuppa, MS, M.Tech
Research Lab Specialist Lead
[email protected]

Annapurna is a Research Lab Specialist Lead in the Abdel-Latif lab. She has two master's degrees in Bioinformatics and Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and University of Pune in India. Annapurna is uniquely trained to perform both functional as well as computational research. She began her career at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Bombay) and later joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a Bioinformatics Scientist.

Over the years, Anna has enjoyed serving multiple roles, as a project manager, a scientist, and a team lead. She enjoys mentoring new team members and students. At Michigan Medicine, Anna is involved in studying cardiovascular diseases, obesity-related disorders, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease using computational and animal models. Her current project focuses on the novel mechanisms of cardiac tissue repair post-myocardial infarction in Acomys and Mus. Anna also develops computational pipelines to analyze RNA sequencing data, to evaluate clinical biomarkers for disease risk predictions, and to perform genotype-phenotype association studies.

In her free time, Annapurna enjoys dancing, traveling, and exploring new vegetarian spots.
 

Tahra Kaur Suhan, MS
Tahra Kaur Suhan, MS

Tahra Kaur Suhan, MS
Research Lab Specialist Senior
[email protected]

Tahra serves as a researcher and support staff in the Abdel-Latif lab. She received her BS in Zoology from Michigan State University, and her MS in Molecular Cellular and Development Biology from the University of Michigan.

Tahra began her career at the University of Michigan in 2007, with the Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine (ULAM), after which she was recruited to serve as the Assistant Program Manager of Dr. Max Wicha’s cancer stem cell research laboratory. Over the years in her career at Michigan Medicine, she has continued as a lab manager and scientist, studying numerous cancer mechanisms and targeted therapies, including immunotherapy, Ewing sarcoma tumorigenesis and metastasis, and investigating the role of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) and small molecule development in difference cancer models, in hopes to determine new targeted therapies.

Tahra has extensive experience with both in vivo and in vitro studies, and a variety of molecular biological assays, as well as lab management. She is excited for the pivot to the cardiology field, where she will help develop unique mouse models, and utilize this along with other methods to study the role of pathological inflammation and immune cell dysfunction, with a focus on T cells, in the development of cardiac fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).

When Tahra is not dedicated to finding innovative treatments for human diseases, she enjoys spending time with her two little beautiful sons and husband, reading, and running.

Postdoctoral Fellows 

Afnan Alzamrooni, PhD
Afnan Alzamrooni, PhD

Afnan Alzamrooni, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr. Afnan Alzamrooni completed her MPharm degree in Clinical Pharmacy at Dubai Medical University in the UAE, where she developed an interest in cardiovascular pharmacology. Dr. Alzamrooni embarked on her PhD journey in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Portsmouth, UK. During her PhD studies, her primary research interest was understanding how the avian model develops early on during embryogenesis with a focus on cardiac development.

Dr. Alzamrooni's current research focuses on animal and in vitro studies investigating the role of angiogenesis and macrophages in myocardial preservation in regenerative species. During her postdoctoral research fellowship at Michigan Medicine, she aspires to explore her research interests in cardiac regeneration and develop innovative treatment modalities that can improve patient outcomes. While Dr. Alzamrooni continues to conduct innovative research, she would also like to utilize her passion and vocation for teaching to mentor and guide the next generation of scientists.
 

Rajesh Chaudhary, PhD
Rajesh Chaudhary, PhD

Rajesh Chaudhary, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
[email protected]

Dr. Rajesh Chaudhary is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Abdel-Latif’s lab. Currently, Dr. Chaudhary is engaged in project(s) centered around the inflammatory impacts of the autotaxin/lysophosphatidic acid signaling during heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). He is interested in understanding how lysophosphatidic acid-mediated inflammatory response influences metabolic regulation of cardiac immune cell functions, particularly that of macrophages during HFpEF, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and myocardial infarction. Before joining Dr. Abdel-Latif’s lab, Dr. Chaudhary had a chance to work in Dr. Thorp's lab on a project that was centered around understanding the peroxisomal and mitochondrial crosstalk and how their beta-oxidation regulates the anti-inflammatory property of cardiac macrophages after myocardial infarction.

Dr. Chaudhary graduated from The University of Adelaide, South Australia, in 2021 with a PhD in Medicine. During his PhD, Dr. Chaudhary studied the metabolic impacts of nutritional interventions such as intermittent fasting, caloric restriction, and time-restricted feeding on the diet-induced obesity models of humans and animals. He also had a chance to conduct both in vivo and in vitro assays to understand how these nutritional interventions regulate the autophagy process at the cellular level and whether those interventions aid in the healthy aging process. In the last 10 years, Dr. Chaudhary has had the opportunity to work with various amazing research groups in the metabolic field from the U.S., Australia, Thailand, and Nepal. He looks forward to contributing to cardiovascular science.

Please visit the Frankel Cardiovascular Center website for patient information and to make an appointment.

Tahra Suhan
Michigan Medicine
2800 Plymouth road
NCRC, Building 20
Ann Arbor MI 48105
[email protected]