Hesham A. Sadek leads the Myocardial regeneration via cardiomyocyte cell cycle regulation laboratory at CNIC. He is also Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Cardiology, and Director of the Sarver Heart Center at the University of Arizona. Through this coordinated transatlantic research program, his laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms that regulate cardiac regeneration and heart repair, with the goal of developing novel therapies for heart failure and inherited cardiomyopathies.
His laboratory was the first to demonstrate that the neonatal mammalian heart retains a transient endogenous regenerative capacity, a discovery that fundamentally reshaped the field of cardiovascular biology. Building on this, his group identified key regulators of cardiomyocyte cell-cycle arrest and regeneration, among them the transcription factor MEIS1 and the calcineurin–HOXB13 signaling axis, establishing a mechanistic framework for understanding why the heart loses its regenerative potential shortly after birth.
Current work centers on translating these biological insights into therapeutic opportunities. Ongoing projects combine mouse genetics, human stem cell models, genomics, and drug discovery platforms to identify pharmacological and genetic strategies capable of stimulating myocardial repair. These efforts have already yielded concrete results: the identification of FDA-approved drugs that induce cardiac regeneration in preclinical models, and the development of targeted approaches for genetic forms of heart disease.
Dr. Sadek's research has been continuously supported by major national and international funding agencies and has resulted in more than 120 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Science, Nature, Cell, Circulation, Nature Cardiovascular Research, Nature Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
