Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, is Chief Science Officer and Director of Cardiovascular Research at Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI). He serves as Professor of Medicine (Clinical Scholar) at Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to accepting an appointment at HMRI, Dr. Kloner served as Director of Research of the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles from 1987 to December 2014. He has run nationally and internationally known cardiovascular research programs for over 45 years, training dozens of medical scientists, and collaborating with scores of physician scientists, numerous research institutions and medical industries world-wide.
In the 1970s, Dr. Kloner received his BS and MD in the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University, and his PhD in Experimental Pathology from Northwestern University Medical School where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Jennings. Dr. Kloner is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts (1975-1978). Additional training included clinical and research fellowships in medicine and cardiology (with Eugene Braunwald, MD, and Peter Maroko, MD) at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He served as Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and was an attending cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1979-1984). He was the recipient of an Established Investigator Award of the American Heart Association (AHA), he is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, an Inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the AHA, and Dr. Kloner was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiology Society.
Dr. Kloner has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of heart disease, receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Defense (DOD) and numerous corporations and private foundations. He performed some of the first studies on and helped define the concepts of no reflow in the heart, stunned myocardium, remote ischemic preconditioning, and triggers of cardiovascular events. He has made major contributions to the understanding of pathophysiology of heart attack, treatments for heart attack; studies on high blood pressure and heart failure; the effect of toxins like alcohol, cocaine, electronic cigarettes and pollution on the heart; stem cell therapy for the heart; and the intersection between sexual dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Kloner is also collaborating with a bio-engineering group (cell phone app) at USC for noninvasive assessment of heart function. A frequent contributor to the medical and scientific press, Dr. Kloner has authored or co-authored 774 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, 222 chapters or monographs, and 574 abstracts (as of 2024). Dr. Kloner is the author and editor of 18 medical texts including: Cardiovascular Trials Reviews (10 editions); The Guide to Cardiology (3 editions); Stunned Myocardium; Ischemic Preconditioning; VIAGRA; and Heart Disease and Erectile Dysfunction. In addition, he has written and published three medical science fiction novels, and released an album of neo-classical piano compositions entitled “Tunes from Edmonson Alley,” in 2024.
Among his editorial responsibilities, Dr. Kloner served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (2009-2019). He has served as Guest Editor of Circulation. He is on the editorial boards of American Journal of Cardiology, Basic Research in Cardiology, International Journal of Impotence Research, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Regenerative Medicine, and Life Sciences. Among his many career distinctions, Dr. Kloner has been listed in Who’s Who in America, The Best Doctors in America, and in 2002 was cited by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the most highly cited scientific authors. He has an H-index of 137 and is cited over 87,350 times as per Google Scholar. Dr. Kloner is a frequent lecturer at major scientific symposia including the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, and he has lectured at most major academic medical centers in the United States. He has taught at both the Keck School of Medicine at USC and lectured at Caltech.
Wangde Dai, MD earned his medical degree from Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, P.R. of China, in September 1999. His passion for basic medical science research led him to the vascular research laboratory at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, where he served as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2000 to 2002. During this time, he focused on the isolation and culture of smooth muscle and endothelial cells from blood vessels. These genetically engineered cells were transfected with GFP, tPA, and NOS genes and subsequently seeded onto a prosthetic graft for implantation in the abdominal aortas of rabbits. His research, supervised by Drs. Hong Yu and Vincent L. Rowe, aimed to determine whether the transfer of tPA and NOS genes could prevent neointimal hyperplasia in prosthetic grafts implanted in vivo.
From June 2002 to 2014, Dr. Dai joined Dr. Robert Kloner’s laboratory at Good Samaritan Hospital’s Heart Institute. Under Dr. Kloner's mentorship, he focused on cardioprotective strategies related to both acute and chronic myocardial infarction in rat models. His work included intramyocardial cell transplantation, collagen and heart tissue-derived matrix implantation in chronic myocardial infarction models, and post-ischemia hypothermia therapy in ischemia/reperfusion models. Dr. Dai also evaluated the cardioprotective effects of various pharmaceutical agents, including acetaminophen, olmesartan (a mitochondria-targeting peptide), and Bendavia, among others.
In recent years, Dr. Dai has engaged in research exploring therapeutic strategies for hemorrhagic shock and ischemic stroke, as well as investigating the long-term effects of e-cigarette exposure on cardiovascular structure and function. He is proficient in experimental models involving artery bypass surgery, acute and chronic myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic shock.
In 2015, Dr. Dai and Dr. Kloner’s Cardiovascular Research team joined the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. His current research continues to focus on cardioprotective and neuroprotective strategies beneficial for patients with myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke, as well as regenerative cardiology. Throughout his career, Dr. Dai has authored or co-authored 73 peer-reviewed scientific papers and six book chapters.
Juan Carreno, DVM, earned his doctoral degree in veterinary medicine at the National University of Mexico in 1991, and he is a Certified Manager in Animal Resources (CMAR) in Laboratory Animal Resources Management from the American Association for Laboratory Animals Science, USA. In the early stages of his career, he was interested in biomedical research and new ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness or death in people and animals. At HMRI, he collaborated with scientists to discover novel treatments for diseases in the cardiovascular and neuroscience fields using specialized animal models.
Since 2015, Dr. Carreno has been serving as the Vivarium Director at HMRI, where he is responsible for the laboratory animal facilities and the animal care and use program. In this role, he manages all core operational activities of the vivarium and husbandry staff to ensure the daily care of animals in an ethical, safe, and sanitary method using appropriate equipment, in compliance with the federally mandated Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) regulations and Institute policies. He also implements animal care husbandry policies and programs for monitoring animal health, sanitation, and sentinel.
Dr. Carreno works closely with the research departments and vivarium staff to develop the best practices and techniques to support projects at HMRI. He is an instrumental resource to animal users, providing technical expertise, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and assistance with optimizing in vivo procedures. Under the direction and expertise of Dr. Wangde Dai, Dr. Carreno receives hands-on training in current surgical techniques and procedures performed on rodents, including preoperative preparation, animal preparation, and post-operative care. Along with HMRI’s Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Dr. Carreno has contributed 28 abstracts and eight publications to science.
Rashid Alavi, PhD currently holds the position of James Boswell postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI). He completed his doctoral studies in Mechanical/Cardiovascular Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) in August 2023, focusing on the development of "hybrid physics-based data driven approaches for noninvasive hemodynamic diagnosis of myocardial infarction and heart failure." Dr. Alavi earned his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran. Rashid has been an active part of numerous clinical and preclinical studies conducted at USC Keck Hospital and HMRI, contributing to advancements in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and heart failure.
During his doctoral studies, Dr. Alavi earned multiple recognitions. He was among the top five finalists nominated for the highly coveted 2023 Young Investigator Award of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Dr. Alavi is also the recipient of the 2023 Student Recognition Award of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) National Honor Society, presented at the 42nd annual academic honors convocation of USC, where he was recognized for his collection of work on technological advances preventing heart diseases.
Jesus “Jess” Chavez holds the position of Research Associate and Senior Histotechnologist at HMRI. He is currently a lab manager for the Histology Core Lab at HMRI. Jess has dedicated his career in the field of histology, which spanned over 20 years at HMRI. Jess has an extensive background and a strong skill set in histology, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, and animal physiology. At HMRI, Jess has applied his technical expertise across a variety of scientific fields of research that includes cell biology, neuroscience, and engineering, pulmonary and cardiology.
Over the years at HMRI, Jess has provided excellent technical support for many distinguished principal investigators at HMRI notably, Dr. Douglas McCreery and Dr. Robert Kloner. From 2006 to 2017, Jess was an integral part in Dr. McCreery’s cochlear and spinal cord electrode implants studies. He provided technical support in all aspects of histology including the processing of numerous animal tissues for histological analysis. He had also developed a novel paraffin-embedded tissue sectioning method that preserved sectioned specimen integrity and morphology. As such, he has co-authored several technical abstracts and scientific articles in the field of histology.
Currently, He conducts all the histologic analysis for the cardiovascular research group, headed by Dr. Kloner, and works with other research groups within HMRI to aid them with pathologic studies.
Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD
Chief Science Officer
Chair Cardiovascular Research
Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, is Chief Science Officer and Director of Cardiovascular Research at Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI). He serves as Professor of Medicine (Clinical Scholar) at Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to accepting an appointment at HMRI, Dr. Kloner served as Director of Research of the Heart Institute of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles from 1987 to December 2014. He has run nationally and internationally known cardiovascular research programs for over 45 years, training dozens of medical scientists, and collaborating with scores of physician scientists, numerous research institutions and medical industries world-wide.
In the 1970s, Dr. Kloner received his BS and MD in the Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University, and his PhD in Experimental Pathology from Northwestern University Medical School where he trained in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Jennings. Dr. Kloner is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts (1975-1978). Additional training included clinical and research fellowships in medicine and cardiology (with Eugene Braunwald, MD, and Peter Maroko, MD) at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He served as Assistant and then Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and was an attending cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (1979-1984). He was the recipient of an Established Investigator Award of the American Heart Association (AHA), he is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, an Inaugural Fellow of the Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences of the AHA, and Dr. Kloner was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Cardiovascular Section of the American Physiology Society.
Dr. Kloner has made major contributions to the understanding and treatment of heart disease, receiving funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association (AHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Defense (DOD) and numerous corporations and private foundations. He performed some of the first studies on and helped define the concepts of no reflow in the heart, stunned myocardium, remote ischemic preconditioning, and triggers of cardiovascular events. He has made major contributions to the understanding of pathophysiology of heart attack, treatments for heart attack; studies on high blood pressure and heart failure; the effect of toxins like alcohol, cocaine, electronic cigarettes and pollution on the heart; stem cell therapy for the heart; and the intersection between sexual dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Kloner is also collaborating with a bio-engineering group (cell phone app) at USC for noninvasive assessment of heart function. A frequent contributor to the medical and scientific press, Dr. Kloner has authored or co-authored 774 original papers in peer-reviewed journals, 222 chapters or monographs, and 574 abstracts (as of 2024). Dr. Kloner is the author and editor of 18 medical texts including: Cardiovascular Trials Reviews (10 editions); The Guide to Cardiology (3 editions); Stunned Myocardium; Ischemic Preconditioning; VIAGRA; and Heart Disease and Erectile Dysfunction. In addition, he has written and published three medical science fiction novels, and released an album of neo-classical piano compositions entitled “Tunes from Edmonson Alley,” in 2024.
Among his editorial responsibilities, Dr. Kloner served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics (2009-2019). He has served as Guest Editor of Circulation. He is on the editorial boards of American Journal of Cardiology, Basic Research in Cardiology, International Journal of Impotence Research, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Regenerative Medicine, and Life Sciences. Among his many career distinctions, Dr. Kloner has been listed in Who’s Who in America, The Best Doctors in America, and in 2002 was cited by the Institute for Scientific Information as one of the most highly cited scientific authors. He has an H-index of 137 and is cited over 87,350 times as per Google Scholar. Dr. Kloner is a frequent lecturer at major scientific symposia including the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association, and he has lectured at most major academic medical centers in the United States. He has taught at both the Keck School of Medicine at USC and lectured at Caltech.
Wangde Dai, MD
Associate Professor
Cardiovascular Research
Wangde Dai, MD earned his medical degree from Shanghai Medical University, Shanghai, P.R. of China, in September 1999. His passion for basic medical science research led him to the vascular research laboratory at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, where he served as a postdoctoral research fellow from 2000 to 2002. During this time, he focused on the isolation and culture of smooth muscle and endothelial cells from blood vessels. These genetically engineered cells were transfected with GFP, tPA, and NOS genes and subsequently seeded onto a prosthetic graft for implantation in the abdominal aortas of rabbits. His research, supervised by Drs. Hong Yu and Vincent L. Rowe, aimed to determine whether the transfer of tPA and NOS genes could prevent neointimal hyperplasia in prosthetic grafts implanted in vivo.
From June 2002 to 2014, Dr. Dai joined Dr. Robert Kloner’s laboratory at Good Samaritan Hospital’s Heart Institute. Under Dr. Kloner's mentorship, he focused on cardioprotective strategies related to both acute and chronic myocardial infarction in rat models. His work included intramyocardial cell transplantation, collagen and heart tissue-derived matrix implantation in chronic myocardial infarction models, and post-ischemia hypothermia therapy in ischemia/reperfusion models. Dr. Dai also evaluated the cardioprotective effects of various pharmaceutical agents, including acetaminophen, olmesartan (a mitochondria-targeting peptide), and Bendavia, among others.
In recent years, Dr. Dai has engaged in research exploring therapeutic strategies for hemorrhagic shock and ischemic stroke, as well as investigating the long-term effects of e-cigarette exposure on cardiovascular structure and function. He is proficient in experimental models involving artery bypass surgery, acute and chronic myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and hemorrhagic shock.
In 2015, Dr. Dai and Dr. Kloner’s Cardiovascular Research team joined the Huntington Medical Research Institutes. His current research continues to focus on cardioprotective and neuroprotective strategies beneficial for patients with myocardial infarction and ischemic stroke, as well as regenerative cardiology. Throughout his career, Dr. Dai has authored or co-authored 73 peer-reviewed scientific papers and six book chapters.
Juan Carreno, DVN
Director, Vivarium
Research Assistant Professor
Juan Carreno, DVM, earned his doctoral degree in veterinary medicine at the National University of Mexico in 1991, and he is a Certified Manager in Animal Resources (CMAR) in Laboratory Animal Resources Management from the American Association for Laboratory Animals Science, USA. In the early stages of his career, he was interested in biomedical research and new ways to prevent and treat diseases that cause illness or death in people and animals. At HMRI, he collaborated with scientists to discover novel treatments for diseases in the cardiovascular and neuroscience fields using specialized animal models.
Since 2015, Dr. Carreno has been serving as the Vivarium Director at HMRI, where he is responsible for the laboratory animal facilities and the animal care and use program. In this role, he manages all core operational activities of the vivarium and husbandry staff to ensure the daily care of animals in an ethical, safe, and sanitary method using appropriate equipment, in compliance with the federally mandated Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) regulations and Institute policies. He also implements animal care husbandry policies and programs for monitoring animal health, sanitation, and sentinel.
Dr. Carreno works closely with the research departments and vivarium staff to develop the best practices and techniques to support projects at HMRI. He is an instrumental resource to animal users, providing technical expertise, troubleshooting, problem-solving, and assistance with optimizing in vivo procedures. Under the direction and expertise of Dr. Wangde Dai, Dr. Carreno receives hands-on training in current surgical techniques and procedures performed on rodents, including preoperative preparation, animal preparation, and post-operative care. Along with HMRI’s Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Dr. Carreno has contributed 28 abstracts and eight publications to science.
Rashid Alavi, PhD
James G. Boswell Postdoctoral Fellow
Cardiovascular Research
Rashid Alavi, PhD currently holds the position of James Boswell postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI). He completed his doctoral studies in Mechanical/Cardiovascular Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) in August 2023, focusing on the development of "hybrid physics-based data driven approaches for noninvasive hemodynamic diagnosis of myocardial infarction and heart failure." Dr. Alavi earned his BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology in Iran. Rashid has been an active part of numerous clinical and preclinical studies conducted at USC Keck Hospital and HMRI, contributing to advancements in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction and heart failure.
During his doctoral studies, Dr. Alavi earned multiple recognitions. He was among the top five finalists nominated for the highly coveted 2023 Young Investigator Award of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Dr. Alavi is also the recipient of the 2023 Student Recognition Award of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP) National Honor Society, presented at the 42nd annual academic honors convocation of USC, where he was recognized for his collection of work on technological advances preventing heart diseases.
Jesus “Jess” Chavez
Research Associate
Senior Histotechnologist
Jesus “Jess” Chavez holds the position of Research Associate and Senior Histotechnologist at HMRI. He is currently a lab manager for the Histology Core Lab at HMRI. Jess has dedicated his career in the field of histology, which spanned over 20 years at HMRI. Jess has an extensive background and a strong skill set in histology, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, and animal physiology. At HMRI, Jess has applied his technical expertise across a variety of scientific fields of research that includes cell biology, neuroscience, and engineering, pulmonary and cardiology.
Over the years at HMRI, Jess has provided excellent technical support for many distinguished principal investigators at HMRI notably, Dr. Douglas McCreery and Dr. Robert Kloner. From 2006 to 2017, Jess was an integral part in Dr. McCreery’s cochlear and spinal cord electrode implants studies. He provided technical support in all aspects of histology including the processing of numerous animal tissues for histological analysis. He had also developed a novel paraffin-embedded tissue sectioning method that preserved sectioned specimen integrity and morphology. As such, he has co-authored several technical abstracts and scientific articles in the field of histology.
Currently, He conducts all the histologic analysis for the cardiovascular research group, headed by Dr. Kloner, and works with other research groups within HMRI to aid them with pathologic studies.
