Dr. Imam Shaik
Improving clinical outcomes in pregnant women and organ transplant patients.
Projects
Normothermic machine perfusion attenuates ischemia reperfusion injury
Transplantation is the only treatment option for end-stage organ diseases. Ischemia and reperfusion injury, a major complication, observed in deceased donor organs adversely affects graft function. Our research focuses on machine perfusion and pharmacological approaches to improve graft quality and function.
Drug disposition in organs from gene-edited pigs and developing drug dosing strategies in xenotransplantation
Gene-edited pigs serve as alternate sources of organ supply for transplantation. Recent advances in kidney and heart transplants from genetically modified pigs to non-human primates, human decedents, and living recipients have shown encouraging results. Our objective is to assess and understand the drug disposition in human and porcine organs and develop strategies for drug dosing in human recipients of pig organs.
Metabolic function of the liver in the living donor liver transplant donors and recipients
Living donor liver transplantations (LDLT) are increasing in the US, with improvements in surgical techniques, the postoperative care and management of the donors and the recipients. After LDLT, the functional mass of the liver recovers to normal levels in the donor and in the recipient over a period of 2 to 6 months. My lab aims to evaluate the synthetic, metabolic, and excretory capacity of the transplanted livers in the donor and the recipient after LDLT.
Pharmacologically-based strategies to inform clinical care for opioid use disorder in pregnancy
The prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among pregnant women has risen dramatically over the past decade leading to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Despite the availability of medications for OUD which significantly reduce risk of overdose and preterm delivery, the dosing strategies for OUD are based on empirical approaches. My lab applies clinical pharmacology and modeling & simulation approaches for improving patient compliance and clinical outcomes for mother and baby.
