Clinical Focus

• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Aortic Diseases
• Thoracic Surgery

Honors and Awards

• Donald Morton Research Award, Department of Surgery - UCLA School of Medicine (2003)
• Ronald K. Tompkins Golden Apple Teaching Award, UCLA School of Medicine (2003)
• Golden Scalpel Award for Teaching Excellence, Division of General Surgery - UCLA School of Medicine (2003)
• Caves Scientific Award, International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation - Osaka, Japan (2000)
• Cum Laude Graduate, Boston University School of Medicine (1995)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Fabian Emrich,  Fabian Emrich,  Homare Okamura

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Cardiothoracic Surgery
• Surgery

Current Research Interests

Mechanisms of allograft rejection, ischemic/reperfusion injury, and molecular and genetic mechanisms of aortic aneurysm/dissection development. Clinical research interests include thoracic aortic diseases (aneurysms, dissections).

Clinical Trials

• Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Recruiting
• To evaluate the safety and efficacy for GORE TAG Thoracic Endoprosthesis in the treatment of Thoracic Aortic disease No longer recruiting

Publications

• miR-29b Participates in Early Aneurysm Development in Marfan Syndrome. Merk DR, Chin JT, Dake BA, Maegdefessel L, Miller MO, Kimura N, Tsao PS, Iosef C, Berry GJ, Mohr FW, Spin JM, Alvira CM, Robbins RC, Fischbein MP. Circ Res. 2012; 110 (2): 312-24
• In vivo functional and transcriptional profiling of bone marrow stem cells after transplantation into ischemic myocardium. Sheikh AY, Huber BC, Narsinh KH, Spin JM, van der Bogt K, de Almeida PE, Ransohoff KJ, Kraft DL, Fajardo G, Ardigo D, Ransohoff J, Bernstein D, Fischbein MP, Robbins RC, Wu JC. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2012; 32 (1): 92-102
• Molecular imaging of bone marrow mononuclear cell survival and homing in murine peripheral artery disease. van der Bogt KE, Hellingman AA, Lijkwan MA, Bos EJ, de Vries MR, van Rappard JR, Fischbein MP, Quax PH, Robbins RC, Hamming JF, Wu JC. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2012; 5 (1): 46-55
• A novel cardioprotective agent in cardiac transplantation: metformin activation of AMP-activated protein kinase decreases acute ischemia-reperfusion injury and chronic rejection. Chin JT, Troke JJ, Kimura N, Itoh S, Wang X, Palmer OP, Robbins RC, Fischbein MP. Yale J Biol Med. 2011; 84 (4): 423-32
• Interleukin-16 deficiency suppresses the development of chronic rejection in murine cardiac transplantation model. Kimura N, Itoh S, Nakae S, Axtell RC, Velotta JB, Bos EJ, Merk DR, Gong Y, Okamura H, Nagamine CM, Adachi H, Kornfeld H, Robbins RC, Fischbein MP. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2011; 30 (12): 1409-17