Hossein Baharvand Ph.D.

Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology

Professor of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology

Email: h.baharvand@royan-rc.ac.ir

Tel: +98 21 22306485

Fax: +98 21 23562507

CV: Baharvand_H, CV

About

Hossein Baharvand is a distinguished Professor of Royan Institute, where he firstly joined in 1995. He received his B.Sc. in Biology from Shiraz University in 1994, and M.Sc. in Developmental Biology from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran in 1996. He received his Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology from Khwarizmi University (formerly Tarbiat Moallem University) in 2004. In 2012, he became Professor at Royan institute. He is also appointed as the head of department of Developmental Biology at University of Science and Culture (2006-jan 2018). For the first time, he generated the mouse and human embryonic stem cells (2003) and induced pluripotent stem cells (2008) in Iran. This has enabled his team to pursue many avenues of research into translational research and regenerative medicine.
He is the founder and director of Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, where the institute is committed to cross-disciplinary partnerships and collaborations by biology, engineering, and medical academics to improve human health and life quality. Now, the institute includes 4 main departments named as Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Regenerative Medicine, Cell Engineering and the newly established Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
He has given numerous tutorials and invited talks in many congresses. He is the editor of four international books which were published by Springer (2010 and 2012) and John Wiley, USA (2015). He has published 322 international and 102 national peer-reviewed papers, as well as seven chapters in international books, seven books in Persian, and eight translated English text books into Persian. Eight figures of his peer-reviewed publications were selected as cover pages of international journals. As of March. 2018, Google Scholar reports over 8000 citations and h-index 45 to his work. He is currently the editorial board member of eight international journals (e.g., Journal of Biological Chemistry and Nature Scientific Reports).

Research Interests

He has focused his research interests on improving the translational research and regenerative medicine mainly through the understanding of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology and Biologically inspired Engineering.
Given the rapid pace of developments within the pluripotent stem cell field, it is likely that the generation of safe and effective derivatives for use in cell therapy will be achieved in the near future. These cells also provide fascinating possibilities for the study of disease models, tissue engineering, drug discovery and developmental biology.
He has been working on pluripotency mechanism and germ cell biology and differentiation into cardiomyocytes, neural cells and hepatocytes in cross-disciplinary collaborations by biology, engineering, and medical researchers. He has also been making numerous contributions to clinical trials and tissue-specific stem cell transplantation, as well as developing cell manufacturing.

A) Pluripotency

In order to develop and define molecular mechanisms of pluripotency, he has already introduced the acquisition of naïve pluripotency in mice and men by modulating TGFβ signaling pathway as two sides of the same coin. They found a new chemically defined culture medium, called R2i (two inhibitors) in the presence of inhibitors of TGFβ and FGF signaling pathways exhibiting typical features of ground state pluripotency. R2i allows for efficient pluripotent stem cell generation from mouse and rat preimplantation blastocysts as well as from primordial germ cells (PGCs). R2i as same as the well-known 2i condition which include the FGF and GSK3 inhibitors could support the criteria of ground state pluripotency. High throughput transcriptome analysis indicated that in spite of the high similarity between 2i and R2i grown ESCs, BMP4 signaling pathway is highlighted in R2i cells. Our miRNome analysis indicated a distinct set of ‘‘ground-state miRNAs’’ encoded by an imprinted region on chromosome 12 within the Dlk1-Dio3 locus. Moreover, the proteome analysis revealed focal adhesion signaling pathway significantly downregulated and glycolysis signaling pathway upregulated in ground state conditions. Their time course transcriptome analysis during ESC generation from inner cell mass in R2i regimen indicated that DNA methyltransferases and epithelial to mesenchymal transition blockage play pivotal roles in launching the ESC self-renewal program. In contrast to the mouse context, however, it seems that TGFβ signaling plays a stimulatory role in generation and maintenance of human naïve pluripotency.

B) Neural cell differentiation

He also successfully produced neual stem cells and neural cells from the pluripotent stem cells. He and his team have developed animal models to evaluate the function of produced neural cells. They showed improvement of cognitive function in Alzheimer’s, better recovery in spinal cord injury, slight restoration in retinal injury and improvement in optic nerve injury. He also provided a proteomic view of the molecular mechanisms of Multiple Sclerosis recovery after ESC-derived neural stem cell transplantation in animal model. He reported the first established long-term self-renewable and multipotent neural stem cells through direct conversion of human fibroblasts by a single zinc-finger transcription factor. In addition, his work has resulted in efficient production of human retinal pigmented epithelial cells from normal and retinal disease iPSCs.

C) Cardiomyocyte differentiation

He produced matured cardiomyocytes from ESCs by the cardiac fibroblast-derived ECM (cardiogel). Next, he described human cardiomyocyte differentiation using protein transduction by Islet1 recombinant protein or gene overexpression by Fndc5 or direct conversion of fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes. In a step towards regenerative medicine technologies, they developed a scalable and robust differentiation platform to scale up cardiomyocytes to help repair damaged heart. By integrating tissue engineering, he improved the biological function of decellularized heart valves generation and production of humanized rat heart constructs by protein tethering and three-dimensional cell seeding in a bioreactor using human ESCs-derived cardiac progenitor cells.

D) Hepatocyte differentiation

He and his team also differentiated human ESCs, to hepatocytes in two- and three-dimenstional culture systems. Their research also led to generating liver disease-specific iPSCs that were efficiently differentiated into functional hepatocyte-like cells. They also first introduced a scalable stirred-suspension bioreactor culture of functional hepatocyte-like cells. In the next step, he improved the protocol and developed a cost-effective method for producing human hepatic cells from size-controlled pluripotent stem cell aggregates. He has generated hepatocyte-like cells in an efficient method of sustained and localized delivery of growth factors using microparticles, which engineer a better three-dimensional microenvironment for cell differentiation. Using these stem cell-derived hepatocyte-like cells, their secreted molecules and/or extracellular vesicles derived from them, they improved acute or cirrhosis animal models of liver injury.

E) Germ cells

The opinion that female mammals have lost the capacity for oocyte production after birth has been challenged recently by the discovery of proliferative germ cells in adult mouse and human ovaries. However, the existence of oogonial stem cells (OSCs) in postnatal mammalian ovaries is still controversial. He and his team isolated mitotically active functional germ cells from adult mouse and human ovaries by ovarian organoids (ovaroids) formation. This innovative approach represented an efficient, yet simple and reproducible method for isolation and expansion of functional germ cells, which would have profound implications for basic research into oogenesis and translation of this work to the clinical setting. Additionally, he and his team are interested in spermatogonial stem cells isolation, expansion and charachterization and understanding of signalling pathways.

Group members

PhD students:

Moraveji

Arefeh Nami

Padideh karimi

Mojtaba Hosseini

Sousan Simorgh

Mehdi Soleymani-Goloujeh

Applied Cell Sciences (PhD Candidate)

Saber

Azadeh Amini

Nasim Eslami

Somayeh Naderi

Postdoctoral fellow:

Sara Taleahmad

Razieh Karamzadeh

Amir Shojai

Shiva Nemati

Zahra Shiri

Publications

The full list of publications can be find here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Hossein+Baharvand

Selected Publications:

  1. Selected papers
    1. Fereshteh Esfandiari*, Nahid Mansouri, Maryam Shahhoseini, Heidar Heidari Khoei1, Gelareh Mikaeili1, Hugo Vankelecom, Hossein Baharvand*. Endometriosis Organoids: Prospects and Challenges. Reproductive BioMedicine Online. 2022:S1472-6483(22)00152-3.
    2. Heidar Heidari-Khoei, Fereshteh Esfandiari, Ashraf Moini, Simin Yari, Maryam Saber, Marefat Ghaffari Novin, Abbas Piryaei*, Hossein Baharvand*. Hormone-responsive Human Endometrial Organoid Generation from Cryopreserved Biopsies. Experimental Cell Research. 2022;417(1):113205.
    3. Ibrahim Zarkesh#, Mohamad Kazemi Ashtiani#, Zahra Shiri#, Saeideh Aran, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand. Synthetic developmental biology: Engineering approaches to guide multicellular organization. Stem Cell Reports. 2022 Apr 12;17(4):715-733. #: Co-first authors.
    4. Mohammad Pakzad, Seyedeh Nafiseh Hassani*, Fatemeh Abbasi, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar, Leila Taghiyar, Nasrin Fallah, Newsha Haghparast, Azam Samadian, Meysam Ganjibakhsh, Massimo Dominici, Hossein Baharvand*. A Roadmap for the Production of a GMP-Compatible Cell Bank of Allogeneic Bone Marrow-Derived Clonal Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Cell Therapy Applications. Stem Cell Rev Rep. 2022 Feb 17:1-17.
    5. Maryam Kay, Bahram Mohammad Soltani*, Mohamed Nemir, Parisa Aghagolzadeh Silakhor, Pezzuto I, Chouvardas P, Ruberto F, Movahedi F, Hassan Ansari, Hossein Baharvand*, Thierry Pedrazzini*. The conserved long noncoding RNA CARMA regulates cardiomyocyte differentiation. Cardiovasc Res. 2021 Aug 30:cvab281. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvab281. Online ahead of print
    6. Zahra Heydari, Ibrahim Zarkesh, Mohammad-Hossein Ghanian, Mahdokht H Aghdaei, Svetlana Kotova, Ensieh Zahmatkesh, Zahra Farzaneh, Abbas Piryaei, Anastasia Shpichka, Roberto Gramignoli, Peter Timashev, Hossein Baharvand *, Massoud Vosough*. Biofabrication of Size-Controlled Liver Microtissues Incorporated with ECM-Derived Microparticles to Prolong Hepatocyte Function. Bio-Design and Manufacturing. 2021 Aug 9:1-28.
    7. Samira Gholami, Ibrahim Zarkesh, Mohammad-Hossein Ghanian*, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar, Fateme Hassan-Aghaei, Mohammad-Masoud Mohebi*, Hossein Baharvand*. Dynamically Capped Hierarchically Porous Microneedles Enable Post-Fabrication Loading and Self-Regulated Transdermal Delivery of Insulin. Chemical Engineering Journal. 2021 Oct 1;421:127823.
    8. Fatemeh Radmanesh, Hamid Sadeghi Abandansari, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian, Sara Pahlavan, Fahimeh Varzideh, Saeed Yakhkeshi, Mehdi Alikhani, Sharif Moradi, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*. Hydrogel-mediated delivery of microRNA-92a inhibitor polyplex nanoparticles induces localized angiogenesis. 2021 Aug;24(3):657-676.
    9. Fereshteh Esfandiari#, Heidar Heidari Khoei#, Maryam Saber, Raha Favaedi, Abbas Piryaei, Ashraf Moini, Maryam Shahhoseini, Fariba Ramezanaali, Firouzeh Ghafari, Hossein Baharvand*. Disturbed Progesterone Signaling in an Advanced Preclinical Model of Endometriosis Reproductive BioMedicine Online. ;43(1):139-147. #: Co-first authors.
    10. Ensieh Zahmatkesh, Mohammad-Hossein Ghanian, Ibrahim Zarkesh, Zahra Farzaneh, Majid Halvaei, Zahra Heydari, Farideh Moienvaziri, Amna Othman, Marc Ruoss, Abbas Piryaei, Roberto Gramignoli, Saeed Yakhkeshi Andreas Nussler4, Mustapha Najimi*, Hossein Baharvand*, Massoud Vosough*. Tissue-Specific Microparticles Improve Organoid Microenvironment for Efficient Maturation of Pluripotent Stem-Cell-Derived Hepatocytes. 2021, 21;10(6):1274.
    11. Zahra Farzaneh, Saeed Abassalizadeh, Mohammad-Hassan Asghari-Vostikolaee, Mehdi Alikhani, Joaquim M.S. Cabral, Hossein Baharvand*. Dissolved Oxygen Concentration Regulates Human Hepatic Organoid Formation from Pluripotent Stem Cells in a Fully Controlled Bioreactor. Biotechnology and Bioengineering. 2020 Dec;117(12):3739-3756.
    12. Azimeh Akhlaghpour#, Adeleh Taei#, Seyyed Abolghasem Ghadami, Zahra Bahadori, Saeed Yakhkeshi, Sepideh Molamohammadi, Tahereh Kiani, Azam Samadian, Zahra Ghezelayagh, Newsha Haghparat, Keynoosh Khalooghi, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani*. Chicken Interspecies Chimerism Unveils Human Pluripotency. Stem Cell Reports. 2021 Jan 12;16(1):39-55. #: Co-first authors.
    13. Faezeh Shekari #*, Abdoreza Nazari #, Sara Assar Kashani #, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar, Rebecca Lim, Hossein Baharvand *. Preclinical investigation of mesenchymal stromal cell-derived extracellular vesicles: A systematic review. 2021 Apr;23(4):277-284. #: Co-first authors.
    14. Adeleh Taei#, Tahereh Kiani#, Zeinab Taghizadeh#, Sharif Moradi, Azam Samadian, Sepideh Mollamohammadi, Ali Sharifi-Zarchi, Stefan Guenther, Azimeh Akhlaghpour, Behrooz Asgari, Mostafa Najar-Asl, Razieh Karamzadeh, Keynoosh Khalooghi, Thomas Braun, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani*, Hossein Baharvand*. Temporal Activation of LRH-1 and RAR-γ in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Induces a Functional Naïve-Like State. EMBO reports. 2020, 21(10):e47533. #: co-first author
    15. Heidar Heidari-Khoei#, Fereshteh Esfandiari#, Mohammad Amin Hajari, Zeynab Ghorbaninejad, Abbas Piryaei*, Hossein Baharvand*. Organoid Technology in Female Reproductive Biomedicine. Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology. 2020 Jun 18;18(1):64. #: co-first author
    16. Adeleh Taei, Paniz Rasooli, Thomas Braun, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani*, Hossein Baharvand*. Signal regulators of human naïve pluripotency. Experimental Cell Research. 2020 Apr 15;389(2):111924.
    17. Zahra Heydari, Mustapha Najimi, Hamed Mirzaei, Anastasia Shpichka,
      Marc Ruoss, Zahra Farzaneh, Leila Montazeri, Abbas Piryaei, Peter Timashev,
      Roberto Gramignoli, Andreas Nussler, Hossein Baharvand*, Massoud Vosough*. Tissue Engineering in Liver Regenerative Medicine: Insights into Novel
      Translational Technologies.       2020 Jan 27;9(2).
    18. Seyedeh-Faezeh Moraveji, Fereshteh Esfandiari, Sara Taleahmad, Saman Nikeghbalian, Forough-Azam Sayahpour, Najmeh-Sadat Masoudi, Abdolhossein Shahverdi, Hossein Baharvand*. Suppression of transforming growth factor-beta signaling enhances spermatogonial proliferation and spermatogenesis recovery following chemotherapy. Hum Reprod. 2019 Dec 1;34(12):2430-2442.
    19. Fatemeh Shahriari, Leila Satarian, Sharif Moradi, Ali Sharifi Zarchi, Stefan Günther, Arian Kamal, Mehdi Totonchi, Seyed-Javad Mowla*, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*. MicroRNA profiling reveals important functions of miR-125b and let-7a during human retinal pigment epithelial cell differentiation. Experimental Eye Research. 2019 Nov 20;190:107883.
    20. Soura Mardpour#, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian#, Hamid Sadeghi-abandansari, Saeid Mardpour, Abdoreza Nazari, Faezeh Shekari, Hossein Baharvand* Hydrogel-mediated sustained systemic delivery of mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles improves hepatic regeneration in chronic liver failure. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. 2019 Oct 16;11(41):37421-37433. #: Co-first author
    21. Zahra Shiri, Susan Simorgh, Somayeh Naderi, and Hossein Baharvand*. Optogenetics in the Era of Cerebral Organoids. Trends in Biotechnology. 2019 Dec;37(12):1282-1294.
    22. Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani#, Sharif Moradi#, Sara Taleahmad, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*. Transition of Inner Cell Mass to Embryonic Stem Cells: Mechanisms, Facts, and Hypotheses. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 2019 Mar;76(5):873-892. #: Co-first author.
    23. Anahita Soltanian, Zahra Ghezelayagh, Zahra Mazidi, Majid Halvaei, Soura Mardpour, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar, Yaser Tahamtani*, Hossein Baharvand*. Generation of Functional Human Pancreatic Organoids by Transplants of Embryonic Stem Cell Derivatives in a Bioprinted Tissue Trapper. Journal of Cellular Physiology. 2019 Jun;234(6):9564-9576.
    24. Fahimeh Varzideh, Sara Pahlavan, Hassan Ansari, Majid Halvaei, Sawa Kostin, Mohammad-Sadegh Feiz, Hamid Latifi, Nasser Aghdami, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*. Human Cardiomyocytes Undergo Enhanced Maturation in Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Organoid Transplants. 2019 Feb;192:537-550.
    25. Clotilde Théry et al and Hossein Baharvand and et al. Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018): a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. 2018 Nov 23;7(1):1535750.
    26. Sareh Rajabi-Zeleti#, Sasan Jalili-Firoozinezhad#, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Gilles Le Carrou, Shahragim Tajbakhsh, Hossein Baharvand*. Effect of chemical immobilization of SDF-1α into muscle-derived scaffolds on angiogenesis and muscle progenitor recruitment. J Tissue Eng Regen Med.2018 Jan;12(1):e438-e450.
    27. Ali Fathi# , Mehdi Mirzaei#, Banafsheh Dolatyar, Mehdi Sharifitabar, Mahnaz Bayat, Ebrahim Shahbazi, Jaesuk Lee, Mohammad Javan, Su-Chun Zhang, Vivek Gupta, Bonghee Lee, Paul A. Haynes, Hossein Baharvand*, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh*. Discovery of Novel Cell Surface Markers for Purification of Embryonic Dopamine progenitors for Transplantation in Parkinson’s Disease Animal Models. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2018;17(9):1670-1684. #: Co-first author.
    28. Zhila Izadi, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar*, Jamshid Hadjati, Mahdi Habibi-Anbouhi, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian, Hamid Sadeghi-Abandansari, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Zakieh Samsonchi, Mohammad Raoufi, Maedeh Moazenchi, Mahmoud Izadi, Anava sadat Sadr Hashemi Nejad, Haideh Namdari, Yaser Tahamtani, Seyed Nasser Ostad, Hamid Akbari-Javar*, Hossein Baharvand*. Tolerance Induction by Surface Immobilization of Jagged-1 for Immunoprotection of Pancreatic Islets. Biomaterials, 2018; 182:191-201.
    29. Fatemeharefeh Nami, Mohsen Basiri, Leila Satarian, Cameron Curtiss, Hossein Baharvand*, Catherine Verfaillie*. Strategies for in vivo genome editing in non-dividing cells. Trends in Biotechnology. 2018 Aug;36(8):770-786.
    30. Hamid Sadeghi Abandansari, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian, Fahimeh Varzideh, Elena Mahmoudi, Sarah Rajabi, Payam Taheri, Mohammad Reza Nabid, Hossein Baharvand*. In situ formation of interpenetrating polymer network using sequential thermal and click crosslinking for enhanced retention of transplanted cells. Biomaterials. 2018;170:12-25.
    31. Mehrnaz Namiri, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Zahra Mazidi, Elena Mahmoudi, Saman Nikeghbalian, Nasser Aghdami*, Hossein Baharvand*. Improving the Biological Function of Decellularized Heart Valves through Integration of Protein Tethering and Three‐Dimensional Cell Seeding in a Bioreactor. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. 2018;12(4):e1865-e1879.
    32. Sara Pahlavan, Marziyeh Shalchi Tousi, Mahdi Ayyari, Abolfazl Alirezalu, Hassan Ansari, Tomo Saric, Hossein Baharvand*. Effects of Hawthorn (Crataegus pentagyna) Leaf Extract on Electrophysiological Properties of Cardiomyocytes Derived from Human Cardiac Arrhythmia-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. FASEB Journal, 2018 Mar;32(3):1440-1451.
    33. Hamidreza Aboulkheyr, Leila Montazeri, Amir Reza Aref, Massoud Vosough, Hossein Baharvand*. Personalized Cancer Medicine: An Organoid Approach. Trends in Biotechnology. 2018 Apr;36(4):358-371.
    34. Sarah Rajabi, Sara Pahlavan, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Hassan Ansari, Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Forough Azam Sayahpour, Fahimeh Varzideh, Sawa Kostin, Nasser Aghdami, Thomas Braun, Hossein Baharvand*. Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells efficiently colonize in bFGF-tethered natural matrix to construct contracting humanized rat hearts. Biomaterials, 2018;154:99-112.
    35. Zeinab Heidariyan, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian, Mohsen Ashjari, Zahra Farzaneh, Mostafa Najarasl, Mehran Rezaei Larijani, Abbas Piryaei, Massoud Vosough, Hossein Baharvand*. Efficient and Cost-effective Generation of Hepatocyte-like Cells Through Microparticle-mediated Delivery of Growth Factors in a 3D Culture of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. 2018;159:174-188.
    36. Sharif Moradi, Ali Sharifi-Zarchi, Amirhossein Ahmadi, Sepideh Mollamohammadi, Alexander Stubenvoll, Stefan Günther, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Sassan Asgari, Thomas Braun*, Hossein Baharvand*. Small RNA Sequencing Reveals Dlk1-Dio3 Locus-Embedded MicroRNAs as Major Drivers of Ground State Pluripotency. Stem Cell Reports. 2017, ;9(6):2081-2096.
    37. Mohammadmajid Sepantafar, Reihan Maheronnaghsh, Hossein Mohammadi, Fatemeh Radmanesh, Mohammad Mahdi Hasani-sadrabadi, Marzieh Ebrahimi, Hossein Baharvand*. Engineered Hydrogels in Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis. Trends in Biotechnology. 2017;35(11):1074-1087.
    38. Mehdi Totonchi#, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani#, Ali Sharifi-Zarchi#, Natalia Tapia, Kenjiro Adachi, Julia Arand, Boris Greber, Davood Sabour, Marcos J. Araúzo-Bravo, Jörn Walter, Mohammad Pakzad, Hamid Gourabi, Hans R. Schöler, Hossein Baharvand*. Blockage of the Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition Is Required for Embryonic Stem Cell Derivation. Stem Cell Reports. 2017, 2017;9(4):1275-1290.
    39. Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Mohammad Pakzad, Joaquim M.S. Cabral, Hossein Baharvand*. Allogeneic Cell Therapy Manufacturing: Process Development Technologies and Facility Design Options. Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy. 2017 Jul 20:1-19.
    40. Mohammadmajid Sepantafar, Reihan Maheronnaghsh, Hossein Mohammadi, Sareh Rajabi-Zeleti, Nassim Annabi, Nasser Aghdami*, Hossein Baharvand*. Stem cells and Injectable Hydrogels: Synergistic Therapeutics in Myocardial Repair. Biotechnology Advances. 2016;34(4):362-79.
    41. Ebrahim Shahbazi, Sharif Moradi, Shiva Nemati, Leila Satarian, Mohsen Basiri, Hamid Gourabi, Narges Zare Mehrjardi, Patrick Günther, Angelika Lampert, Kristian Händler, Fulya Hatay, Diana Schmidt, Marek Molcanyi, Jürgen Hescheler, Joachim L. Schultze, Tomo Šarić*, Hossein Baharvand*. Conversion of Human Fibroblasts to Stably Self-Renewing Neural Stem Cells with a Single Zinc-Finger Transcription Factor. Stem Cell Reports. 2016,;6(4):539-551.
    42. Leila Montazeri, Shahriar Hojjati-Emami*, Shahin Bonakdar, Yaser Tahamtani, Ensiyeh Hajizadeh-Saffar, Marjan Noori-Keshtkar, Mostafa Najar-Asl, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Hossein Baharvand*. Improvement of Islet Engrafts by Enhanced Angiogenesis and Microparticle-Mediated Oxygenation. 2016; 89:157-165.
    43. Hamed Daemi, Sareh Rajabi-Zeleti, Haritz Sardon, Mehdi Barikani*, Ali Khademhosseini, Hossein Baharvand*. A Robust Super-Tough Biodegradable Elastomer Engineered by Supramolecular Ionic Interactions. 2016;84:54-63. (Featured article by Material Today at http://www.materialstoday.com/biomaterials/news/seaweed-makes-supertough-biomaterial/)
    44. Hananeh Fonoudi#, Hassan Ansari#, Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Mehran Rezaei Larijani, Sahar Kiani, Shiva Hashemizadeh, Ali Sharifi Zarchi, Alexis Bosman, Gillian M. Blue, Sara Pahlavan, Matthew Perry, Yishay Orr, Yaroslav Mayorchak, Jamie Vandenberg, Mahmoud Talkhabi, David S. Winlaw, Richard P. Harvey, Nasser Aghdami, Hossein Baharvand*. A Universal and Robust Integrated Platform for the Scalable Production of Human Cardiomyocytes from Pluripotent Stem Cells. Stem Cells Translational Medicine. 2015;4(12):1482-1494.. #: co-first author. (Top downloaded paper)
    45. Fereshteh Esfandiari, Omid Mashinchian, Mohammad Kazemi Ashtiani, Mohammad Hossein Ghanian, Katsuhiko Hayashi, Amir Ata Saei, Morteza Mahmoudi, Hossein Baharvand*. Possibilities and Challenges in Germ Cell Research: An Engineering Insight. Trends in Biotechnology. 2015;33(12):735-46. (Cell Press)
    46. Nasim Sadat Kajabadi, Ali Ghoochani, Maryam Peymani, Kamran Ghaedi*, Abbas Kiani-Esfahani, Motahareh-Sadat Hashemi, Mohammad Hossein Nasr-Esfahani*, Hossein Baharvand*. The Synergistic Enhancement of Cloning Efficiency in Individualized Human Pluripotent Stem Cells by Peroxisome Proliferative-Activated Receptor-γ (PPARγ) Activation and Rho-associated Kinase (ROCK) Inhibition. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2015;290(43):26303-13.
    47. Shiva Akbari-Birgani, Saman Hosseinkhani*, Sepideh Mollamohammadi, Hossein Baharvand*. Delay in Apoptosome Formation Attenuates Apoptosis in Cardiac Differentiation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2014, 289(24):16905-16913.
    48. Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani#, Mohammad Pakzad#, Behroz Asgari, Adeleh Taei, Hossein Baharvand*. Suppression of Transforming Growth Factor β Signaling Promotes Ground State Pluripotency from Single Blastomeres. Human Reproduction. 2014.;29(8):1739-48.
    49. Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Mehdi Totonchi, Hamid Gourabi, Hans R. Schöler, Hossein Baharvand*. Signaling Roadmap Modulating Naïve and Primed Pluripotency. Stem Cells and Development. 2014; 23(3):193-208.
    50. Sharif Moradi, Sassan Asgari, Hossein Baharvand*. Harmonies played by microRNAs in cell fate reprogramming. Stem Cells, 2014; 32(1):3-15.
    51. Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Mehdi Totonchi, Ali Sharifi-Zarchi, Sepideh Mollamohammadi, Mohammad Pakzad, Sharif Moradi, Azam Samadian, Najmehsadat Masoudi, Shahab Mirshahvaladi, Ali Farrokhi, Boris Greber, Marcos J. Araúzo-Bravo, Davood Sabour, Mehdi Sadeghi, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Hamid Gourabi, Hans R. Schöler, Hossein Baharvand*. Inhibition of TGFß Signaling Promotes Ground State Pluripotency. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports. 2014;10(1):16-30.
    52. Sareh Rajabi-Zeleti, Sasan Jalili Firoozinezhad, Mahnaz Azarnia, Fahimeh Khayyatan, Sadaf Vahdat, Saman Nikeghbalian, Hossein Baharvand*, Nasser Aghdami*. The Behavior of Cardiac Progenitor Cells on Macroporous Pericardium-derived Scaffolds. Biomaterials, 2014; 35: 970-982.
    53. Saeed Abbasalizadeh, Hossein Baharvand* Technological Progress and Challenges towards cGMP Manufacturing of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells Based Therapeutic Products for Allogeneic and Autologous Cell Therapies. Biotechnology Advances. 2013; 31: 1600-1623.
    54. Massoud Vosough, Eskandar Omidinia, Mahdi Kadivar, Mohammad-Ali Shokrgozar, Behshad Pournasr, Nasser Aghdami, Hossein Baharvand*. Generation of Functional Hepatocyte-like Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells in a Scalable Suspension Stem Cells and Development, 2013; 22: 2693-705.
    55. Adeleh Taei, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Poopak Eftekhari Yazdi, Mojtaba Rezazadeh Valojerdi, Mohsen Nokhbatolfoghahai, Najmeh-Sadat Masoudi, Mohammad Pakzad, Hamid Gourabi, Hossein Baharvand*. Enhanced generation of human embryonic stem cells from single blastomeres of fair and poor-quality cleavage embryos via inhibition of glycogen synthase kinase β and Rho-associated kinase signaling. Human Reproduction. 2013; 28: 2661-71.
    56. Yasser Tahamtani, Mahnaz Azarnia, Ali Farrokhi, Ali Sharifi-Zarchi, Nasser Aghdami, Hossein Baharvand*. Treatment of Human Embryonic Stem Cells with Different Combinations of Priming and Inducing Factors towards Definitive Endoderm. Stem Cells and Development. 2013;22(9):1419-32.
    57. Seyedeh-Faezeh Moraveji#, Farnoosh Attari#, Abdolhossein Shahverdi, Houri Sepehri, Ali Farrokhi, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Hannaneh Fonoudi, Nasser Aghdami, Hossein Baharvand*. Inhibition of Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Promotes Efficient Derivation of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Neonatal Mouse Testis. Human Reproduction, 2012, 27(8):2312-24. #: first athours.
    58. Azadeh Zahabi, Ebrahim Shahbazi, Hamid Ahmadieh, Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Mehdi Totonchi, Adeleh Taei, Najmehsadat Masoudi,  Marzieh Ebrahimi, Nasser Aghdami, Ali Seifinejad, Faramarz Mehrnejad, Narsis Daftarian, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Hossein Baharvand*. A New Efficient Protocol for Directed Differentiation of Retinal Pigmented Epithelial Cells from Normal and Retinal Disease induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Stem Cells and Development, 2012, 21(12):2262-72.
    59. Ali Niapour, Fereshteh Karamali, Shiva Nemati, Zahra Taghipour, Mohammad Mardani, Mohammad Hossein Nasr-Esfahani*, Hossein Baharvand*. Co-transplantation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-derived Neural Progenitors along with Schwann Cells in a rat spinal cord contusion injury model elicits a distinct Neurogenesis and functional recovery. Cell Transplantation, 2012;21:827-43.
    60. Seyedeh-Nafiseh Hassani, Mehdi Totonchi, Ali Farrokhi, Adeleh Taei, Mehran Rezaei Larijani, Hamid Gourabi, Hossein Baharvand*. Simultaneous Suppression of TGF-β and ERK Signaling Contributes to the Highly Efficient and Reproducible Generation of Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells from Previously Considered Refractory and Non-permissive Strains. Stem cells reviews and Reports. 2012;8(2):472-81.
    61. The International Stem Cell Initiative, et al, Baharvand H, et al. Screening a large, ethnically diverse population of human embryonic stem cells identifies a chromosome 20 minimal amplicon that confers a growth advantage.  Nat Biotechnol. 2011;29(12):1132-1144.
    62. Arefeh Ghodsizadeh, Adeleh Taei, Mehdi Totonchi, Ali Seifinejad, Hamid Gourabi, Behshad Pournasr, Nasser Aghdami, Reza Malekzadeh, Navid Almadani, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Hossein Baharvand*. Generation of Liver Disease-Specific Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells along with Efficient Differentiation to Functional Hepatocyte-Like Cells. Stem cells reviews and Reports. 2010 6(4):622-32.
    63. Zahra Farzaneh, Behshad Pournasr, Nasser Aghdami, Marzeih Ebrahimi, Hossein Baharvand*. Enhanced functions of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-derived Hepatocyte-like Cells on Three-dimensional Nanofibrillar Surfaces. Stem Cell Rev. 2010; 6(4):601-610.
    64. Shiva Nemati, Maryam Hatami, Sahar Kiani, Katayoun Hemmesi, Hamid Gourabi, Najmehsadat Masoudi, Sara Alaei, Hossein Baharvand*. Long-term Self-Renewable Feeder-Free Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neural Progenitors. Stem Cells Dev. 2011; 20(3):503-14.
    65. Samira Asgari, Behshad Pournasr, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Arefeh Ghodsizadeh, Michael Ott, Hossein Baharvand*. Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells: A New Era for Hepatology. Journal of Hepatology, 2010, 53(4):738-51.
    66. Hossein Baharvand*, Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh, Adeleh Taei, Sepideh Mollamohammadi. An Efficient and Easy-to-Use Cryopreservation Protocol for Human ES and iPS Cells. Nature Protocols. 2010, 5(3):588-94.
    67. Adeleh Taei, Hamid Gourabi, Ali Seifinejad, Mehdi Totonchi, Ebrahim Shahbazi, Mojtaba Rezazadeh Valojerdi, Poopak Eftekhari, Leila Karimian, Hossein Baharvand*. Derivation of New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines from Preimplantation Genetic Screening and Diagnosis-Analyzed Embryos. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology. 2010, 46(3-4):395-402.
    68. Mohammad Pakzad, Mehdi Totonchi, Adeleh Taei, Ali Seifinejad, SeidehNafiseh Hasani, Hossein Baharvand*. Presence of a ROCK inhibitor in Extracellular Matrix Supports More Undifferentiated Growth of Feeder-Free Human Embryonic and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells upon Passaging. Stem Cell Reviews and Reports. 2010 ;6(1):96-107.
    69. Mollamohammadi S, Taei A, Pakzad M, Totonchi M, Seifinejad A, Masoudi N, Baharvand H*. A Simple and Efficient Cryopreservation Method for Feeder-free Dissociated Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells and Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Hum Reprod. 2009;24(10):2468-76.
    70. Hatami M, Zare Mehrjerdi N, Kiani S, Azizi H, Hemmesi K, Baharvand* Human embryonic stem cell-derived neural precursor transplants in collagen scaffolds promote recovery in injured rat spinal cord. Cytotherapy. 2009;11(5):618-30.
    71. Baharvand H*, Hashemi SM, Shahsavani M. Differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into functional hepatocyte-like cells in a serum-free adherent culture condition. Differentiation, 2008;76(5):465-77.
    72. Baharvand H*, Zare Mehrjardi N, Hatami M, Kiani S, Rao M, Haghighi MM. Neural differentiation from human embryonic stem cells in a defined adherent culture condition. J. Dev. Biol. 2007; 51: 371-378.
    73. Baharvand H*, Hashemi S.M.M, Kazemi Ashtiani S. Differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into hepatocytes in 2D and 3D culture systems in vitro. International J. of Developmental Biology, 2006; 50:645-52.
    74. Baharvand H*, Hajheidari M, Kazemi Ashtiani S, Hosseini Salekdeh GH*. Proteomic Signature of Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Proteomics, 2006, 6, 3544-3549.
    75. Baharvand H*, Kazemi Ashtiani S, Taee A, Massumi M, Valojerdi MR, Eftekhari Yazdi P, Zarei Moradi Sh, Farrokhi A. Generation of New Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines with Diploid and Triploid Karyotypes. Development, Growth and Differentiation, 2006, 48, 117-128.
    76. Baharvand H* Azarnia M, Parivar K, Kazemi Ashtiani S. The effect of extracellular matrix on embryonic stem cell- derived cardiomyocytes. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, 2005, 38, 495-503. (Selected as one of the Top25 articles within the journal: Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, on Science Direct, February 2006)
    77. Baharvand H*, Kazemi Ashtiani S, Valojerdi MR, Shahverdi A, Taee A, Sabour D. Establishment and in Vitro differentiation of a new Embryonic stem cell line from Human Blastocyst. 2004, 72, 224-229.
    78. Baharvand H*, Matthaei K: Culture Condition Difference for Establishment of New Embryonic Stem Cell lines From the C57BL/6 and BALB/c Mouse Strains. In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology-Animal. 2004, 40: 76-81.
      Featured as Journal Highlight (http://www.sivb.org/journalhighlights38-4.asp)

Miscellaneous

He has received 29 international and national awards including 10th (2004), 12th (2006), and 17th (2012) annual Razi research award on medical science hosted by Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education, 26th Khwarizmi International Award (2013), hosted by Iran Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, 27th annual book of the year of the Islamic republic of Iran (2010), Academy of Medical Sciences of Iran (Dr. Hadavi’s Award in 2010, 2014), International Prof. Yalda Award for Excellence in Medical Sciences (2015), distinguished scientist in Iranian Biotechnology (2015) and Genetics (2016) national award. He is the winner of the Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) Prize for research in the field of Biology (2010). Moreover, he was introduced as Prominent Professor in 3rd term of Allameh Tabatabaei’s Award hosted by Iran vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Presidency and National Elite Foundation (2014). He is the winner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)-Equatorial Guinea international prize (2014) for research in life sciences aimed at improving the quality of human life with his stem cell research and its numerous applications in regenerative medicine. He was also selected as 20 stem cell person of the year 2017 award nominees hosted by THE NICHE site (https://ipscell.com/2017/11/20-stem-cell-person-of-the-year-2017-award-nominees/).
Moreover, as of now three companies are spinned off from the work he inititated at the Royan Intitute for Stem Cell Biology and Tehcnology including Cell Tech Pharmed as a cell factory for cell therapy, Royan Biotech for production of recombinant proteins, and Royan Stem Cell Technology for banking of cord blood stem cells.
Furthermore, he has had several efforts in publicizing the stem cell biology in Iran and in this regard he with his team established a lab entitled “Stem Cells for all” and a “mobile advanture lab” by an equipted bus. The aim of these participatory teaching and learning methods is to motivate and empower learners to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values necessary to shape a sustainable future for stem cells and their potentials in regenerative medicine. He has also established “annual international summer school” program since 2010. The participants were trained by invited speakers from abroad to incease international and national interactions and training methods in this field.
His hobbies are Karate (with Black belt grade, Dan 1), Mountaineering and study of historical stories.