Biography
Atena Zahedi, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Practice and UC President's Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on modulating mitochondrial fitness traits and mitochondrial transfer to address neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injury. Zahedi uses patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to develop human neural stem cells and microglia for disease modeling and drug repurposing studies, with the goal of advancing precision medicine approaches and clinical trial development. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside, where she was an NSF IGERT Fellow in Video Bioinformatics.
Zahedi has secured multiple research grants as principal investigator, including a KL-2 Faculty Career Development Award from the UC Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Science and a Healthy Longevity Global Competition Award from the National Academies of Medicine (NAM). She has also served as co-investigator on grants from the Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation and the NSF-Simons Center for Multiscale Cell Fate. Her work has resulted in numerous peer-reviewed publications and she has developed novel video bioinformatics and machine learning methods to assess stem cell health and mitochondrial dynamics.
Throughout her career, Zahedi has mentored undergraduate students, graduate students, and technicians through programs including the UC Irvine Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Bridges Program, and the UC Irvine Data Science Capstone Program. She has contributed to diversity initiatives through her involvement with Women in Research, the Association for Women in Science, and the Association for Disabled Faculty and Staff.
Return to topEducation
- PhD in Bioengineering, UC Riverside, 2018
- MS in Bioengineering, UC Irvine, 2014
- BS in Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, 2010
Distinctions
- National Academies of Medicine (NAM) Healthy Longevity Global Grant Challenge Catalyst Award, 2021-2024
- UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2019-2021
- NSF IGERT Fellowship in Video Bioinformatics, 2012-2015
- KL-2 Mentored Career Development Fellowship, Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS), 2021-2024
- Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) Travel Fellowship, 2013
- UCI Stem Cell Research Center Golub Postdoctoral ISSCR Travel Fellowship, 2023
- Best Oral Presentation Award, UCI 11th Annual Stem Cell Science Symposium, 2024
- Best Undergraduate Research Poster Presentation Award, UCI 12th Annual Stem Cell Science Symposium, 2025
- 1st Place Poster Award, Society of Toxicology Southern California Chapter Meeting, 2017
- Best Poster Award, Southern California Chapter of Society of Toxicology Meeting, 2016
Areas of Expertise
- Regenerative Medicine and Neuroscience
- Mitochondrial Bioenergetics and Transfer
- Neural Stem Cell Therapeutics
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Spinal Cord Injury Repair
- Patient-Derived iPSC Disease Modeling
- Drug Repurposing for Neurodegeneration
- CAR T Therapies
Recent Publications
- Piltti K.M., Lakatos A., Benavente-Perez F., Elrachid Z.H., Nava A.A., Addonizio N.T., Nguyen V., Zahedi A., Song W.A., Chen X., David J., Portillo A., Manughian-Peter A.O., Rodriguez A.N., Anzalone A., Cahill C.M., Anderson A.J., “C1q drives neural stem cell quiescence by regulating cell cycle and metabolism through BAI1” (opens in new tab), Nature Communications, vol. 16, 2025.
- Nekanti, U., Sakthivel, P., Zahedi, A., Creasman, DA., Hernandez, N., Chen, X., Guardamondo, GL., Nishi, R., Song, H., Shi, C., Ngotran, AH., Lawmaster, L., Lin, X., Martinez, J., Seidlits, S., Dumont, C., Cummings, B., Obenaus, A., Xu, X., Shea, L., et al., “Multichannel Bridges and NSC Synergize to Enhance Axon Regeneration, Myelination, Synaptic Reconnection, and Recovery After SCI” (opens in new tab), Nature Regenerative Medicine, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 12, 2024.
- On, V., Zahedi, A., Phandthong, R., “Applications of Superpixels on Phase Contrast Microscopy” (opens in new tab), Proceedings 2023 5th International Conference on Transdisciplinary AI Transai 2023, pp. 262-265, 2023. Presented at International Conference on AI for Industries.
- Zahedi, A., Phandthong, R., Chaili, A., Leung, S., Remark, G., Talbot, P., “A Mitochondrial Stress Response in Stem Cells Exposed to Electronic Cigarettes” (opens in new tab), iScience, vol. 16, pp. 25-269, 2019.
- Zahedi, A., On. V., Phandthong, R., Chaili, A., Remark, G., Bhanu, B., Talbot, P., “Deep Analysis of Mitochondria and Cell Health Using Machine Learning” (opens in new tab), Scientific Reports, vol. 8, pp. 16354, 2018.
- Zahedi, A., Phandthong, R., Chaili, A., Lemark, G., Talbot, P., “Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition of A549 Lung Cancer Cells Exposed to Electronic Cigarettes” (opens in new tab), Lung Cancer, vol. 122, pp. 224-233, 2018.
- On V., Zahedi A., Bhanu B., “3D Reconstruction of Phase Contrast Images Using Focus Measures” (opens in new tab), Proceedings International Conference on Image Processing Icip, pp. 101-105, 2018.
- On, V., Zahedi, A., Ethell, IM., Bhanu, B., “Automated Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Dendritic Spines and Related Protein Dynamics” (opens in new tab), PLoS ONE, vol. 12, pp. e0182958, 2017.
- Bahl, V., Johnson, K., Phandthong, R., Zahedi, A., Schick, SF., Talbot, P., “Thirdhand Cigarette Smoke Causes Stress-Induced Mitochondrial Hyperfusion and Alters the Transcriptional Profile of Stem Cells” (opens in new tab), Toxicological Sciences, vol. 153, pp. 55-69, 2016.
- Zahedi, A., On, V., Lin, S., Bays, BC., Omaiye, E., Bhanu, B., Talbot, P., “Evaluating Cell Processes, Quality, and Biomarkers in Pluripotent Stem Cells Using Video Bioinformatics” (opens in new tab), PLoS ONE, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. e0148642, 2016.
- Liu, H., Augello, C., Zahedi, A., Ethell, I., “Poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) composites with magnesium wires enhanced networking of primary neurons”, 2016. Patent No. US Patent App. 14/688,774.
- On V., Zahedi A., Ethell I., Bhanu B., “Spatio-temporal pattern recognition of dendritic spines and protein dynamics using live multichannel fluorescence microscopy” (opens in new tab), Proceedings International Conference on Pattern Recognition, vol. 0, pp. 2042-2047, 2016.
- Zahedi, A., On, V., Defea, K., Ethell, IM., “A Method to Regulate Cofilin Transport using Optogenetics and Live Video Analysis”, Video Bioinformatics Book Chapter, Springer, 2015.
- Zahedi, A., On, V., Defea, K., Ethell, IM., “Optogenetics to Target Actin-Mediated Synaptic Loss in Alzheimer's” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of International Society of Photonics and Optics (SPIE), vol. 8586, pp. 85860S-1-6, 2013.
- Zahedi, A., Ethell, IM., “Optogenetics to regulate synaptic connectivity in Alzheimer's disease” (opens in new tab), Alzheimer's & dementia: the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 2013.
- Zahedi, A., On, V., Defea, K., Ethell, IM., “Optogenetics to target actin-mediated synaptic loss in Alzheimer's”, Proceedings of SPIE, vol. 8586, pp. 85860S-1-6, 2013. Presented at International Society of Photonics and Optics (SPIE), San Francisco, California, Jan 2013.
Contact Information
Website: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/atenazahedi/
Email: azahedi@uci.edu
Phone: (949) 824-3805
Address: 3231 Gross Hall, 845 Health Sciences Rd
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Last updated on 5/22/2026.