Dr Zahra Elahi is a Bioinformatics Researcher at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute whose work addresses one of the biggest gaps in cardiovascular research: the lack of understanding of immune dysregulation in heart disease and stroke. While mouse models have taught us much about atherosclerosis, the role of autoimmunity and immune dysregulation in human cardiovascular disease remains poorly defined. Her research works towards solving this problem by uncovering how antigen-driven responses contribute to inflammation, tissue damage, and plaque rupture, with the long-term goal of developing new immune-targeted therapies.

To achieve this, Dr Elahi is building a Multi-tissue Atlas of Immunity in Cardiovascular Disease, integrating high-throughput single-cell and spatial omics datasets across tissues such as atherosclerotic plaques, heart, lymphatic nodes, and brain. By combining new human datasets with large public resources, she is defining how T cells, B cells, and antigen-presenting cells respond in cardiovascular disease, and whether these responses resemble autoimmunity, infection, or unique immune states. This work fits into a broader international effort to map human immunity and translate it into precision medicine.

Her fascination lies in understanding how the immune system can act as both protector and driver of disease. During her PhD at the University of Melbourne in Prof Christine Wells’ laboratory, she created the Stemformatics Dendritic Cell Atlas and developed iPSC-derived in vitro dendritic cell models, resources that are now used by the community to study the human dendritic cells. Through her postdoctoral research, Dr Elahi hopes to provide insights that pave the way for innovative interventions, including vaccines designed to prevent cardiovascular inflammation and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.