Rajan Sah, MD, MSCI, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis (WU)

I am a physician-scientist cardiologist in the Department of Internal Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and Center for Cardiovascular Research. My passion is to discover, develop and deliver better therapies for patients with cardiovascular disease. To this end I have directed my research efforts to identifying novel and innovative biological targets to open new, untested therapeutic avenues. A major goal of my laboratory is to study the function of novel ion channels; specifically TRP channels (including TRPV3, TRPV4 and TRPM7), and the recently identified volume regulatory anion channel SWELL1 (LRRC8a) as they relate to growth and metabolism. To do this we combine cellular electrophysiology, calcium imaging (GCaMP6) and novel genetic techniques (including transient and stable lenti/AAV-shRNA-mediated knockdown and CRISPR-mediated knockout) in cultured cells (mouse and human) and freshly isolated, primary adipocytes, pancreatic ß-cells, hepatocytes, skeletal myocytes, and endothelium. Genetic loss-of-function (CRISPR-mediated and conventional) mouse models for these ion channels are also used to examine their functions in vivo and in disease settings. By taking a “wide-angle” view of ion channel signaling in biology, my laboratory has established several new independent research directions (in part through collaborative relationships) that emanates from our findings and leverages unique molecular tools and skill sets established in our laboratory.