Fellow Spotlight: Suraj Kannan, MD, PhD

Born in India, Suraj Kannan, MD, PhD, grew up in Australia and Louisville, Ky. In high school, he worked with a research mentor who introduced him to cardiac regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. After earning bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry and mathematics at the University of Louisville, he completed his medical degree and PhD in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He discovered molecular targets for engineering cardiac tissue that is more similar to adult rather than fetal hearts. “We identified many critical steps that happen right before and after birth that dictate adult cardiac function,” said Dr. Kannan.

He chose UCSF for fellowship because of its rapidly growing heart transplant program and robust research environment. “My dream is to eventually engineer a heart that’s perfectly suited to a specific patient, without need for immunosuppression,” said Dr. Kannan. He plans to become a physician-scientist who pursues that goal in the lab while also caring for heart transplant patients. His other interests include playing guitar, going to jazz clubs and blues bars, and building his vinyl record collection.