Dr. Elmira Safaie Qamsari

I joined Dr. Duncan Stewart’s laboratory at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in 2022 to begin my PhD research in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). My work initially focused on elucidating the role of endothelial senescence in PAH pathogenesis, which inspired my interest in developing disease-modifying therapeutic strategies. Building on this foundation, my current research investigates innovative immunotherapeutic approaches, including invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell– and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell–based therapies, with the goal of preventing and potentially reversing pulmonary vascular remodeling in PAH.