The Srivastava lab is focused on the gene networks that guide the development of the heart, seeking to understand how aberrations in these pathways can cause congenital heart disease, and how they can use this knowledge to generate new cardiac cells to repair heart damage. One powerful approach they use is creating models of heart disease in a dish by reprogramming human cells from patients carrying mutations in cardiac developmental genes, editing them with CRISPR technology and analyzing changes at the single cell level. This has led them to discover perturbations in pivotal genetic pathways that contribute to disease, and identified the nodes that can be therapeutically targeted to restore heart cells to normal function.

Disease Areas

Congenital Heart Disease
Heart Failure
Cardiac Valve Disease
Aging

Areas of Expertise

Developmental Biology
Human Genetics
Regenerative Medicine
CRISPR and Gene Editing
Stem Cells and iPS Cells
Working in the Srivastava lab

Lab Focus

Modeling human cardiovascular diseases using single-cell approaches in animal models and induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with genetically defined disease.
Investigating how combinations of human mutations or polymorphisms in cardiac developmental genes predispose to disease.
Identifying targetable signaling, transcriptional, and translational nodes that can be manipulated for regenerative medicine or other therapeutic approaches to directly reprogram non-myocytes into new cardiomyocytes for cardiac regeneration.

Research Impact

Srivastava’s lab leveraged the lessons of cardiac developmental biology to directly reprogram resident non-muscle cells in the mouse heart into cells that function like heart muscle cells, effectively regenerating heart muscle after damage. This new paradigm of harnessing endogenous cells to regenerate organs may be broadly applicable to other organs.

Similarly, the team used knowledge of developmental cell-cycle regulators to unlock the post-mitotic state in adult cardiomyocytes and stimulate enough stable cell division to regenerate cardiac muscle in the adult. They also revealed the mechanisms underlying human disease caused by mutations in cardiac developmental regulators using human iPS cells, and used this knowledge to screen for novel therapeutic approaches to disease.

 

Professional Titles

President, Gladstone Institutes

Senior Investigator, Gladstone Institutes

Robert W. and Linda Mahley Distinguished Professor, Gladstone Institutes

Director, Roddenberry Stem Cell Center, Gladstone Institutes

Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Biophysics, UC San Francisco

Wilma and Adeline Pirag Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Developmental Cardiology, UC San Francisco

Bio

Deepak Srivastava is president of Gladstone Institutes. He is also the Younger Family Professor and a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, and director of the Roddenberry Stem Cell Center. At UC San Francisco, Srivastava is a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Biophysics, and is the Wilma and Adeline Pirag Distinguished Professor in pediatric developmental cardiology.

Before joining Gladstone in 2005, Srivastava was a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Molecular Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Medicine. Srivastava served as president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research for 2019–2020 and is on the editorial board of the journal Cell Stem Cell. In addition, Srivastava has co-founded two biotechnology companies, iPierian Inc. and Tenaya Therapeutics, and chaired their scientific advisory boards.

How Did You Get Your Start in Science?

“I fell in love with science as a medical student and this was reinforced after repeatedly experiencing the limitations of modern clinical medicine.”

Deepak Srivastava, MD

Honors and Awards

2024 Most Admired CEO Award, San Francisco Business Times

2023 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award

2022 International Okamoto Award from The Japan Research Foundation for Healthy Aging

2020 Rice University Distinguished Alumnus Award

2019 President, International Society for Stem Cell Research

2017 Upstart 50 Inventor Award, San Francisco Business Times

2016 Andras Varro Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences, International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences

2015 World Affairs Council Award, San Francisco, CA

2014 Elected to the National Academy of Medicine

2014 Elected to the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences

2013 Editorial Board, Cell and Cell Stem Cell

2013 Bay Bio Pantheon Award for Scientific Achievement

2013 Best Manuscript Award, Circulation Research

2013 Outstanding Investigator Award, International Society for Heart Research

2013 Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Texas Medical Branch

2012 Lovett C. Peters Lecturer, Pioneer Institute

2012 George E. Brown Memorial Lecturer, American Heart Association

2012 Daniel McNamara Memorial Lecturer, Texas Children’s Hospital

2012 American Pediatric Society (Elected)

2012 Abraham White Scientific Achievement Award

2011 American Association for the Advancement of Science (Fellow)

2010 American Heart Association (Fellow)

2010 American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Elected)

2008 Mavis P. Kelsey Lecturer, Texas Medical Center

2007 E. Mead Johnson Award, Society for Pediatric Research

2006 Wendy and Leonard Goldberg Lecturer, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

2005 Wilma and Adeline Pirag Distinguished Professorship in Pediatric Developmental Cardiology

2004 American Society for Clinical Investigators (Elected)

2004 Society for Pediatric Research (Elected)

2004 Outstanding Contributions in Medicine Award, Dallas Asian Chamber of Commerce

2003 Barbara Bowman Memorial Lecturer

2003 American Society of Clinical Investigators

2002 Pogue Distinguished Chair in Research on Cardiac Birth Defects

2000 Denison Young Memorial Lecturer

2000 Joel B. Steinberg Chair in Pediatrics

1998 Richard Rowe Award, Society for Pediatric Research

1998 Young Investigator Award, Perinatal Research Society

1997 Patrick J. Niland Memorial Lecturer, University of Michigan

1996 Louis and Arnold Katz Basic Science Award, American Heart Association (Finalist)

1995 Young Investigator Award, American Heart Association

1995 Basic Science Research Award, Society for Pediatric Research

1993 National Institute of Health Pediatric Scientist Development Award

1990 Medical Student Research Award, University of Texas Medical Branch

1990 Magna Cum Laude, University of Texas Medical Branch

1986 University of Texas Academic Excellence Award

Publications

Lab Members

Gabriel Avillion, MS
Rotation Student
Ava Bandel
Research Associate I
Abigail Brand
Research Associate I
Cesar Castro
Research Technologist III
Mauro Costa, PhD
Staff Research Scientist II
Matthew Dominguez
Student Intern
Vivek Durai
Vivek Durai
Visiting Postdoc
Nick Elder
Collaborator
Karena Essex
Senior Administrative Specialist
Feng Gao, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Yu Huang, MS
Research Scientist
Patrick Hurley
Research Associate II
Kathy Ivey, PhD
Visiting Scientist
Naman Jain
Visiting Researcher
Shyam Jinagal, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Wesley Kwong
Research Associate I
Adrienne Lam
Research Associate I
Clara Lee
Visiting Researcher
Feiya Li, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Vaibhav Mangipudy
Rotation Student
Bonnie Maven, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Alexander Merriman
Visiting Scientist
Alex Merriman
Graduate Student
Tomo Nishino, MD, PhD
Collaborator
Arun Padmanabhan, MD, PhD
Visiting Postdoc
Angelo Pelonero, MS
Bioinformatician II
Nikolaos Poulis, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar
Jeeves Ranade, PhD
Collaborator
Nandhini Sadagopan, MS
Visiting Researcher
Bethany Taylor, MPA
Chief of Staff
Vasanth Vedantham, MD, PhD
Collaborator
Grace Yang
Visiting Researcher
Lin Ye, PhD
Staff Research Scientist II
Victoria Yu
Research Associate II
Lana Zholudeva, PhD
Research Investigator
Ping Zhou, MD
Research Scientist