Lior Zangi serves as the Principal Scientist at SCALE Life Science.
Lior Zangi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Cardiology and Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, with tenure, and hold the Chan Soon-Shiong Professorship in Cardiovascular Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Zangi completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and his Master’s degree in Experimental and Developmental Medicine at Hebrew University in Israel before earning his PhD in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. He completed postdoctoral fellowships in stem cell biology, mRNA therapeutics, and cardiac regeneration at Tel Aviv University, Harvard University, and Harvard Medical School, where he was promoted to an Instructor position.
Dr. Zangi’s research focuses on methods for delivering modified mRNA (modRNA) to the heart to induce cardiac and cardiovascular regeneration and protection following ischemic injury. Indeed, Dr. Zangi’s published work was the first to demonstrate modRNA delivery into cardiac and skeletal muscle and pioneered the use of modRNA to treat ischemic heart disease. His publications showed, for the first time, that modRNA technology can generate cardiac repair after heart attack and prevent heart failure formation, in both small and large animals.
Throughout his studies, Dr. Zangi’s innovative work laid the foundation for four biotech startup companies and led to eleven modRNA-based patent applications and two awarded patents. The two awarded patents led to the first phase II cardiac modRNA therapeutic clinical trial and the establishment of a novel modRNA-based method for minimally invasive gene delivery into specific cell types and organs to fight conditions such as heart failure, cardiotoxicity, and cancer.
Dr. Zangi is a founding board member a member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of the Society for RNA Therapeutics and currently serves as Scientific Director of the PSMC5 Foundation and a founding board member of the American Friends of ALUT. He has been honored with several awards, including the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and was Co-Winner of the Mount Sinai Faculty Idea Prize, SINAInnovations.
