Professor Efimov is the Director of Cardiovascular Engineering Laboratory, an NIH-funded cardiovascular research and engineering laboratory, which focusses on the physiological mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and on development of novel therapies for heart diseases with emphasis on heart rhythm disorders. Dr. Efimov earned his M.Sc. and PhD from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1986 and 1992, respectively, and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh (1992-1994). He served on the faculty of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (1994-2000) and Case Western Reserve University (2000-2004) in Cleveland, OH, and Washington University in St. Louis, MO (2004-2015), and the George Washington University (2015-2022), where he served as the founding chairman of its new BME Department. In April 2022, Dr. Efimov joined the faculty of Northwestern University, Chicago IL.

Dr. Efimov is Fellow of National Academy of Inventors, the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering, the Heart Rhythm Society, the American Heart Association, etc. He has received numerous awards including: 2021 Heart Rhythm Society Distinguished Scientist Award, RASA George Gamow Prize, Astor Visiting Fellowship at University of Oxford, Washington University Chancellor’s Hartwell Prize for Innovative Research, The Doris J.W. Escher Lectureship at Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Walter Lillehei Lectureship at University of Minnesota, Richard B. and Lynne V. Cheney Lectureship at the George Washington University, etc. 

Dr. Efimov founded Cardialen to develop low energy implantable electrotherapy for cardiac arrhythmias.  Cardialen has raised over $30M in venture and federal funding and is conducting clinical trials worldwide. Dr. Efimov also co-founded NuSera Biosystems to develop new catheter technology for mapping and ablation of arrhythmias.

Dr. Efimov is current Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Engineering & Technology, journal of Biomedical Engineering Society. He served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Heart and Circulatory Physiology and IEEE Transactions in Biomedical Engineering.  He has served on editorial boards of Journal of American College of Cardiology: Clinical Electrophysiology, Circulation Research, Heart Rhythm Journal, Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology, Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, Scientific Reports, and other journals. He served as a chartered member of NIH Electrical Signaling, Transporters and Arrhythmia (ESTA) Study Section.

He served on numerous international expert panels of the World Bank, Canadian Academies, British Heart Foundation, Russian Ministry of Science and Education, the Royal Society of New Zeeland, Swiss National Science Foundation, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and other international organizations.

Research Associate Paloma manages most of the administrative and operational needs in support of the lab. She coordinates lab safety and animal protocols to ensure compliance with policies and guidelines. In addition, she participates in many ongoing projects which includes the effects of exercise on cardiac physiology and the development of implantable bioelectronic devices and animal models of cardiovascular disease.

Eric Rytkin is a Research Associate in the Efimov Lab. After obtaining his MD he further specialized in interventional cardiology/interventional radiology and defended his PhD thesis featuring antithrombotic treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation and acute coronary syndrome. Dr. Rytkin joined the Efimov Lab in 2021 as a postdoctoral scientist before moving to Northwestern University as a Research Associate. His research is focused on the bench-to-bedside development of minimally-invasive medical devices for cardiac applications.

Education: MD-Sechenov University, Moscow, Russian Federation, (2009-2016)PhD-Sechenov University, Moscow, Russian Federation, 2021

Dr. Sharon Ann George is a Research Assistant Professor in the Efimov lab. After obtaining her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Virginia Tech, Dr. George joined the Efimov lab in 2016 as a postdoctoral scientist before moving to Northwestern University as a research faculty. Her research on Cardiooncology identified sex-dependent mechanisms that lead to cardiotoxicity due to cancer therapy. Her work, in mouse and human hearts, led to the discovery that the stress signaling pathways that are activated in the heart in response to cancer chemotherapy, are different between males and females. This could mean that developing therapeutic targets to prevent this cardiotoxicity need to be sex specific.

Another focus of Dr. George's work is to develop novel, cutting-edge technologies to study cardiac function. With her team of students, Dr. George developed a fully 3D-printed optical mapping system which significantly reduced the overall cost associated with this system. Her most recent publication on triple parametric optical mapping to simultaneously measure electrical excitation, contraction and metabolism in the heart is another example of such technology.

Dr. George was recently awarded an American Heart Association Career Development Award to support her research on the benefits of exercise in protecting the heart during cancer therapy. Her preliminary work on this topic suggests significant cardiac effects in response to exercise.

• Sharon A George, Alexi Kiss, Katy Anne Trampel, Sofian N Obaid, Lichao Tang, Igor R Efimov, Tatiana Efimova. Anthracycline cardiotoxicity is exacerbated by global p38β genetic ablation in a sexually dimorphic manner but unaltered by cardiomyocyte -specific p38α loss. AJP Heart, 2023.

• Sharon A George, Jaclyn A Brennan-McLean, Katy A Trampel, Eric Rytkin, N Rokhaya Faye, Bjorn C Knollmann, Igor R Efimov. Ryanodine receptor inhibition with acute dantrolene treatment reduces arrhythmia susceptibility in human hearts. AJP Heart, 2023.

• Jeffrey Schmeckpeper, Kyungsoo Kim, Sharon A George, Dan Blackwell, Jaclyn A Brennan, Igor R Efimov, Bjorn C Knollmann. RyR2 inhibition with dantrolene is antiarrhythmic, prevents further pathological remodeling, and improves cardiac function in chronic ischemic heart disease. JMCC, In Press, 2023.

• Zhiyuan Chen, Zexu Lin, Sofian Obaid, Eric Rytkin, Sharon A George, Christopher Bach, Micah Madrid, Miya Liu, Jessica LaPiano, Amy Fehr, Xinyu Shi, Nathaniel Quirion, Benjamin Russo, Helen Knight, Anthony Aduwari, Igor R Efimov, Luyao Lu. Soft, bioresorbable, transparent microelectrode arrays for multimodal spatiotemporal mapping and modulation of cardiac physiology. Science Advances, In Press, 2023.

• Anna Gams, Alejandro Nevarez, Stephanie Perkail, Aileen Venegas, Sharon A George, Tatiana Efimova, Igor R Efimov. Evidence of sex differences in cancer-related cardiac complications in mouse models of pancreatic and liver cancer. Physiological Reports, 2023. PMID: 37102225.

• Sharon A George*, Zexu Lin, Igor R Efimov. Simultaneous Triple-Parametric Optical Mapping of Transmembrane Potential, Intracellular Calcium and NADH for Cardiac Physiology Assessment. bioRxiv, 2021. Nature Communications Biology, 2022. PMID: 35388167. *Co-corresponding Author.

• Jeffrey D Schmeckpeper, Kyungsoo Kim, Sharon A George, Daniel J Blackwell, Jaclyn A Brennan, Igor R Efimov, Bjorn C Knollmann. RyR2 inhibition with dantrolene is antiarrhythmic, antifibrotic, and improves cardiac function in chronic ischemic heart disease. bioRxiv, 2022.

• Joyce Lin, Anand Abraham, Sharon A George, Amara Greer-Short, Grace A. Blair, Angel Moreno, Bridget Alber, Matthew W Kay, Steven Poelzing. Ephaptic Coupling is a Mechanism of Conduction Reserve During Reduced Gap Junction Coupling. Frontiers Physiology, 2022. PMID: 35600295.

• Anna Warhol, Sharon A George*, Sofian N Obaid, Tatiana Efimova, Igor R Efimov. Differential cardiotoxic electrocardiographic response to doxorubicin treatment in conscious versus anesthetized mice. Physiological Reports, 2021. PMID: 34337891. *Corresponding Author.

• Jessica Miller, Moustafa H Meki, Qinghui Ou, Sharon A George, Anna Gams, Riham RE Abouleisa, Xian-Liang Tang, Brooke Ahern, Guruprasad A Giridharan, Ayman El-Baz, Bradford G Hill, Jonathan Satin, Daniel J Conklin, Javid Moslehi, Roberto Bolli, Alexandre JG Ribeiro, Igor R Efimov, Tamer MA Mohamed. Heart slice sulture system reliably demonstrates clinical drug -related cardiotoxicity. Toxicology and Applied Pharamacology, 2020. PMID: 32877659.

• Sharon A George, Alexi Kiss, Sofian N Obaid, Aileen Venegas, Trisha Talapatra, Tatiana Efimova, Igor R Efimov. p38 genetic ablation protects female mice from anthracycline cardiotoxicity. AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2020. PMID: 328222209.

• Sharon A George, Jaclyn A Brennan, Igor R Efimov. Preclinical Platform for Cardiac Electrophysiology Assessment by Dual Voltage and Calcium Optical Mapping of Human Organotypic Cardiac Slices. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2020. PMID: 32628156.

• Sharon A George, Igor R Efimov. Optocardiography: A review of its Past, Present and Future. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering. 2019.

• Sharon A George, Patrick J Calhoun, Gregory Hoeker, Michael Entz II, Tristan B Raisch, D Ryan King, Momina Kahn, Chandra Baker, James W Smyth, Morten S Nielsen, Steven Poelzing. Modulating Cardiac Condution during Metabolic Ischemia with Perfusate Sodium and Calcium in Guinea Pigs Hearts. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2019. PMID: 30707595.

• Brianna Cathey, Sofian Obaid, Alexander M Zolotarev, Roman A Pryamonosov, Roman A Syunyaev, Sharon A George*, Igor R Efimov. Open-Source Multiparametric Optocardiography. Sci Rep, 2019. PMID: 30679527. *Co-corresponding Author.

• Sharon A George, N Rokhaya Faye, Alejandro Murillo-Berlioz, K Benjamin Lee, Gregory D Trachiotis, Igor R Efimov. At the Atrioventricular Crossroads: Dual Pathway Electrophysiology in the Atrioventricular node and its underlying heterogeneities. Arrhtyhmia and Electrophysiology Review, 2017. PMID: 29326832.

• Sharon A George, Patrick J Calhoun, Robert G Gourdie, James W Smyth, Steven Poelzing. TNF modulates Cardiac Conduction by Altering Electrical Coupling between Myocytes. Front Physiol, 2017. PMID: 28588504

• Amara Greer-Short, Sharon A George, Steven Poelzing, Seth H Weinberg. Revealing the Concealed Nature of Long-QT Type 3 Syndrome. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol, 2017. PMID: 28213505

• Sharon A George, Mohammad Bonakdar, Michael Zeitz, Rafael V Davalos, James W Smyth, Steven Poelzing. Extracellular Sodium dependence of the Conduction Velocity – Calcium Relationship: Evidence of Ephaptic Self-attenuation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 2016. PMID: 26945081

• Michael Entz II, Sharon A George, Michael J Zeitz, Tristan Raisch, James W Smyth, Steven Poelzing. Heart Rate and Extracellular Sodium and Potassium Modulation of Gap Junction Mediated Conduction in Guinea Pigs. Front Physiol, 2016. PMID: 26869934

• Sharon A George, Steven Poelzing. Cardiac Conduction in Isolated Hearts of Genetically Modified Mice - Connexin43 and Salts. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 2015. PMID: 26627143

• Sharon A George, Katherine J Sciuto, Joyce Lin, Mohammed Salama, James Keener, Robert G Gourdie, Steven Poelzing. Extracellular Sodium and Potassium Levels Modulate Cardiac Conduction in Mice Heterozygous Null for the Connexin43 Gene. Pflugers Archiv – European Journal of Physiology, 2015. PMID: 25771952.

o American Heart Association – Career Development Award – 2022 – 2025

 Sex Differences in Cardiac Metabolism Underlie Exercise-induced Cardioprotection in Females during Cancer Chemotherapy

o American Heart Association – Postdoctoral Fellowship – 2019 – 2020

 Differential roles of p38 MAPK isoforms in Doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity

o American Heart Association – Predoctoral Fellowship – 2015 – 2016

 Modulation of Ephaptic and Gap Junctional Coupling by TNF alpha and its Effect on Cardiac Conduction

o David W Francis and Lillian Francis Scholarship – 2015 – 2016

 Ephaptic Coupling in Cardiac Conduction, Promoting Longer, Healthier and Safer Lives.

o VTCRI Medical Research Scholar’s Award – 2014 – 2015

Dr. Efimova is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Her research focuses on stress signaling and adaptation mechanisms in skin and oral cavity cancer, skin inflammatory diseases, wound healing, and cardiac dysfunction related to cancer therapy. Dr. Efimova received her M.Sc. from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and completed her doctoral and post-doctoral training at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, OH. She served on the faculty of the CWRU, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and George Washington University in Washington, DC before joining the faculty of Northwestern University in Chicago, IL in November 2022. Dr. Efimova served as PI on the projects supported by the NIH R01 funding and grants from the Dermatology Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the American Skin Association, and university-funded grants. Dr. Efimova’s research was published in leading dermatologic, physiology, and cancer biology journals. Dr. Efimova has presented her research at academic institutions and national and international conferences, including the Society of Investigative Dermatology (SID) and International Societies for Investigative Dermatology (ISID) annual meetings, the Epithelial Biology Gordon Research Conferences, and the Skin Carcinogenesis Conferences.

Dr. Efimova is an active member of the SID and serves as a Co-Chair of the SID’s Standing Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She served as an abstract reviewer and sessions co-chair at several SID and ISID conferences. Dr. Efimova served as Associate Editor and Section Editor of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, topic editor for a Special Topic Issue, "New Tools and Molecular Advances into Hyperproliferative Skin Disorders," in Frontiers in Medicine Dermatology, and currently serves as an editorial board member for the Molecular Carcinogenesis journal. In recent years, Dr. Efimova has served as an ad hoc grant reviewer at the NIH Arthritis Connective Tissue and Skin Study Section and the NIH Special Emphasis Panel/Scientific Review Group ZRG1 IMM-G, as well as for several other national and international funding agencies, including the Association for International Cancer Research and Medical Research Council, UK.

Micah Madrid is a third-year PhD student in the Efimov lab. He explores human heart research at various structural levels from cellular to whole heart studies. The Efimov lab specializes in optical measurements using potentiometric fluorescent probes. He has observed localized cardiac function, biochemistry, and applied cellular reprogramming. Micah collaborates in validating novel cardiac devices (including implantable actuators, and electrical and optical sensors), characterizing engineered heart and tissue slices (constructed with iPSC-CMs), and developing next-generation biotechnology such as graphene-based opto-electrical stimulation.

Micah began his Ph.D. in 2019 and before starting to learn cardiac engineering, he published in a collaborative study through iGEM in synthetic biology/bioengineering. His background was based primarily in molecular biology/biochemistry but he was always interested in engineering while doing research through this organization. Micah has been able to master a lot of new techniques and work with exciting technology in this lab, diversifying his skills and research interests. Micah has really enjoyed a lot of collaborative projects in cardiac engineering and is always open to discuss ideas in new and old areas of research.

Katy Trampel is a first-year biomedical engineering doctoral student. In September 2019, she began working in the Efimov Lab as an undergraduate researcher. She has worked on several projects with Dr. Sharon George. For the cardiac metabolism project, they are working on creating a chamber-specific metabolic profile of the human heart. On the exercise project, she is studying the electrical and structural effects of moderate endurance exercise on mice hearts. For the cardiac oncology project, she is studying the effects of doxorubicin on the heart and the roles of different isoforms of the p38 stress signaling pathway. She is looking forward to continuing her studies at the Efimov Lab at Northwestern University.

Education:

BS–Biomedical Engineering, The George Washington University, (2018-2022)

James is a master student in Dr. Igor Efimov’s lab majoring in Biomedical Engineering. James’s research focuses on understanding the effect of hormonal drugs (estrogen and testosterone) on the heart and developing an implantable chronic drug delivery device. The device aims to maintain normal hormone levels in the long term and achieve intended cardioprotective function.

Education

BS-Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA(2016-2020)

MS–Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University (2021–Present)

Binjie Li is a PhD student in Efimov Lab from 2022. Before coming here, he was working on engineered heart tissue to study maturation, cardiac disease, and therapeutic strategies. Now he is investigating the mechanism of the remodeling phenomena in CM cells during atrial fibrillation, through microtissue and animal models. He is also interested in the role of mechanical stimuli in cardiac development. He is always passionate about interdisciplinary research involving engineering and biology. 

Education:

BS - Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University (2015-2019)

MS - Biomedical Engineering, Duke University (2019-2021)