Izhak kehat MD, PhD received his MD (1997, Suma cum laude) from the Faculty of Medicine, Technion –Israel Institute of Technology. During his PhD (2005) he worked on deriving cardiomyocytes from human embryonic stem cells at the Faculty of Medicine at Technion, under the supervision of Professor Lior Gepstein. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine (2006) at the Rambam Medical Center, Haifa, Israel, and a fellowship in Cardiology at the Rambam Medical Center (2011, in excellence). At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC, USA) (2006-2010), he was a postdoctoral fellow under the guidance of Prof. Jeffery Molkentin, where he investigated the signals and gene regulation of cardiac hypertrophy. On his return to Israel, he finished a fellowship in clinical Echocardiography, under the supervision of Prof. Yoram Agmon at Rambam Medical Center, department of physiology.
Dr. Kehat is an associate professor and the head of the Dept. of Physiology, biophysics, and system biology, at the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and a senior cardiologist at the Rambam Medical canter (Haifa, Israel) echocardiography unit. In his research, he aims to understand the structure and function of the sarcomere, the contractile “engine” of muscle and heart, as well as how its deterioration contributes to heart failure. Sarcomere protein components have a short life span; therefore, they need to be replaced constantly. The Kehat lab recently discovered that each sarcomeric ‘engine’ is maintained by a nano-scale ‘factory’ in which mRNA is localized, sarcomeric proteins are locally produced, and excess proteins are discarded. The discovery sheds light on the maintenance of sarcomeres and opens up new therapeutic possibilities. The Kehat lab also studies the process of vascular and valve calcifications. Prof. Kehat Is a member of the ESC and the AHA, was the secretary of Israel Heart association myocardium and pericardium working group, and is the treasurer of the Israeli sub-section of the ISHR.
