Safdar Lab

Welcome to our lab, where we conduct sex and gender-specific research in microvascular health, focusing on the heart, brain, and COVID-19. Led by Dr. Safdar, our team includes a diverse group of researchers with varied expertise, and a broad grant portfolio from NIH, CDC, Foundations, and Investigator Initiated Industry awards. We have successfully conducted numerous clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and translational research projects.

Our lab led the seminal work in describing coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) in emergency department patients using a clinical phenotype based on cardiac PET/CT. CMD predominantly affects female patients and is a cause of recurrent chest pain presentations to the ED. We now lead the Yale CMD Registry, a prospective registry and bio repository committed to comprehensive patient monitoring with a multi-system lens through an integrated, multidisciplinary clinical approach.

We're not just researchers; we're collaborators. Actively engaging across diverse disciplines, federal and industry partners, we amplify our impact. Our exploration extends the thread of microvascular dysfunction beyond its cardiac manifestations, probing the systemic nature of the disease. Our work spans domains of cardiovascular health, cognitive dysfunction, COVID-19, and exercise and fitness, seamlessly integrating sex and gender-specific insights across diagnostic, mechanistic and therapeutic domains.

Our objective extends beyond mere understanding; we aim to translate our findings into tangible advancements in patient care and public health. Through meticulous approach and with a multisystem team, we aim to develop precision-based tools for diagnosis, therapeutics, and risk prediction of microvascular dysfunction on clinical outcomes.

Join us in pushing the boundaries of knowledge, as we strive to find new ways of diagnosing and treating microvascular dysfunction and push the frontiers of precison medicine.