Samira Musah
Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
The Musah Lab is interested in understanding how molecular signals and biophysical forces can function either synergistically or independently to guide organ development and physiology, and how these processes can be therapeutically harnessed to treat human disease. Given the escalating medical crisis in nephrology as growing number of patients suffer from kidney disease that can lead to organ failure, the Musah Lab focuses on engineering stem cell fate for applications in human kidney disease, extra-renal complications, and therapeutic development. Dr. Musah’s research interests include stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human organ development and disease progression, organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarker identification, therapeutic discovery, tissue and organ transplantation, microphysiological systems including Organ Chips (organs-on-chips) and organoids, matrix biology, mechanotransduction and disease biophysics.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering
- Assistant Professor in Cell Biology
- Assistant Professor in Medicine
- Affiliate of the Duke Regeneration Center
- Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Contact Information
- Office Phone: +1 919 613 4943
- Email Address: samira.musah@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2013
Research Interests
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), disease mechanisms, regenerative medicine, molecular and cellular basis of human kidney development and disease, organ engineering, patient-specific disease models, biomarkers, therapeutic discovery, tissue and organ transplantation, microphysiological systems including organs-on-chips and organoids, matrix biology, mechanotransduction, mechanobiology, and disease biophysics.
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2). NIH/NIDDK. 2023
- Genentech Research Award. Genentech. 2021
- George O’Brien Kidney Center Pilot Grant. The George M. O'Brien Kidney Translational Core Center at the University of Michigan (P30 DK081943) . 2021
- Featured, "Women to Watch" series on RegMedNet. RegMedNet. 2021
- Functional & Molecular Genomics Core Facility Voucher Program Award. Duke University. 2020
- Duke Incubation Fund. Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. 2020
- 100 inspiring black scientists in America. Cell Press, Cell Mentor. 2020
- Whitehead Scholarship in Biomedical Research. Whitehead Foundation. 2020
- MEDx (Medicine & Engineering) Biomechanics of Injury and Injury Repair Grant. Duke MEDx Initiative. 2020
- Chair's Research Award. Department of Medicine, Duke University. 2019
- Early Career Investigator Travel Award. Keystone Symposia. 2019
- Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Early Career Scholar. Brown University. 2019
- CPRIT Scholar. Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas. 2018
- Fellow. Keystone Symposia Fellowship. 2017
- Baxter Young Investigator Award, First-Tier. Baxter International Inc.. 2017
- MIT Rising Stars in Biomedical Engineering and Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2016
- NIH/NIDDK Nephrology Research Fellowship. NIH-BIDMC . 2016
- Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Fellowship. Burroughs Wellcome Fund. 2015
- Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship. Harvard University. 2014
- UNCF-Merck Postdoctoral Science Research Fellowship. UNCF & Merck Foundation. 2014
- First Prize, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research Postdoctoral Award. Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research. 2014
- NIH Chemical-Biology Interface Training Grant. NIH. 2011
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. NSF. 2007
Courses Taught
- ME 718S: Biological Engineering Seminar Series (CBIMMS and CBTE)
- ME 717S: Biological Engineering Seminar Series (CBIMMS and CBTE)
- EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
- CELLBIO 493: Research Independent Study
- BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
- BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
- BME 790: Advanced Topics for Graduate Students in Biomedical Engineering
- BME 712S: Biological Engineering Seminar Series (CBIMMS and CBTE)
- BME 711S: Biological Engineering Seminar Series (CBIMMS and CBTE)
- BME 644: Physiology for Engineers
- BME 590: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering
- BME 494: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
- BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
- BME 394: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
In the News
- NIH honors medical scholars’ bold research (Oct 9, 2023 | The Duke Daily)
- Two Duke Scientists Awarded NIH Grants for High-Risk, High-Reward Research (Oct 4, 2023 | Duke University School of Medicine)
- Samira Musah Awarded $1.5 Million in NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Grants (Oct 4, 2023 | Duke University)
- 2023 NIH Director’s New Innovator Awardees (Oct 2, 2023 | NIH)
- NIH to award over $187 million for exceptionally creative biomedical and behavioral research projects (Oct 2, 2023 | NIH)
- A fortuitous collaboration between Duke BME’s Samira Musah and the Duke Human Vaccine Institute’s Maria Blasi helps illuminate why COVID is so adept at attacking kidney cells (Oct 27, 2022 | Duke BME)
- A Dynamic Duo: How ACE-2 And CD147 Mediate Covid-19 Infection In The Kidneys (May 18, 2022 | Forbes)
- Targets for Infection: How SARS-CoV-2 Damages the Kidneys (May 8, 2022 | Forbes)
- COVID-19 Can Infect and Damage Human Kidney Cells (Apr 27, 2022 | Pratt School of Engineering)
- How Covid directly infects, causes damage to human kidney cells (Apr 21, 2022 | National Herald)
- COVID-19 Can Directly Infect and Damage Human Kidney Cells (Apr 20, 2022 | Duke BME)
- Duke biomedical engineers report potential advance in fighting kidney disease (Jan 25, 2022 | TechWire)
- Jessica Shah of Musah Lab selected as Pratt Research Fellow (Jan 2, 2022 | Duke MEDx)
- MEDx investigator, Samira Musah, speaks at UCI Samueli School of Engineering (Dec 5, 2021 | Duke MEDx)
- Adapting to uncertainty: Early-career researchers in the time of COVID-19 (May 5, 2021 | Cell Stem Cell)
- ZAUSCHER TO CHAIR SEARCH COMMITTEE FOR NEW PRATT SCHOOL DEAN (Apr 28, 2021 | Duke Today)
- Uncovering SARS-CoV-2 kidney tropism (Apr 18, 2021 | Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology)
- Unlocking the Mysteries Behind Kidney Disease (Mar 29, 2021 | Duke University)
- Exploring COVID-19’s Impact on the Kidney (Oct 19, 2020 | Duke BME Digital Magazine)
- Introductions to the Community: Early-Career Researchers in the Time of COVID-19 (Aug 5, 2020 | Cell Stem Cell)
- MEDx biomechanics of Injury or Injury Repair Awardees Announced (May 4, 2020 | Duke University)
- 13 Medicine faculty recognized by the School of Medicine (Apr 5, 2020 | Duke University School of Medicine)
- A Community That Writes Together (Mar 19, 2020 | Duke Today)
- Musah Named Among Inspiring Black Scientists in America (Feb 13, 2020 | Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University)
- 100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America (Feb 2, 2020 | Cell Press)
- The Decade Ahead: What’s coming in the Life Sciences? Musah shares predictions. (Jan 8, 2020 | LaunchBio)
- Incubation Awards to Assist Seven Innovative Research Projects Move Toward the Market (Nov 25, 2019 | Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
- The Right Tools for the Job: Model Systems for Glomerular Disease (Nov 6, 2019 | American Society of Nephrology)
- “Talent from All Corners” Event Honors the Contribution of Immigrants to American Science (Nov 5, 2019 | Duke University )
- Stem Cell Research Opening Doors to Precision Medicine for Human Kidney Disease (Jul 15, 2019 | Clinical Practice Today )
- Department selects four investigators for Chair’s Research Award (Apr 8, 2019 | Duke University)
- Musah Wins Keystone Symposia Early Career Investigator Travel Award (Mar 14, 2019 | Duke University)
- Futuristic organ-on-a-chip technology now seems more realistic than ever (Oct 20, 2018 | Salon)
- Samira Musah: Engineering Stem Cell Fate for Applications in Kidney Disease (Aug 12, 2018 | Duke University)
- Kidney Podocytes, All Grown up (Jul 18, 2018 | Science & Technology Research News)
- New Tool for Generating Mature Kidney Podocytes (Jul 15, 2018 | Technology Networks)
- New Protocol Managed to Create Kidney Cells in The Laboratory (Jul 10, 2018 | The Bioscientist)
- Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas Awards New Grants (May 15, 2018 | CPRIT)
- Baxter Honors Recipients of Ninth Annual Young Investigator Awards (Oct 30, 2017 | Baxter)
- Faces of Physics: human organs on a chip (Oct 2, 2017 | Physics World)
- Samira Musah, Ph.D. Discusses the Impact of Mentoring on Her Research (Jun 13, 2017 | NRMN)
- Engineering human stem cells to model the kidney's filtration barrier on a chip (May 9, 2017 | EurekAlert!)
Representative Publications
- Musah, S; Bhattacharya, R; Himmelfarb, J, Kidney Disease Modeling with Organoids and Organs-on-Chips., Annual review of biomedical engineering (2024) [10.1146/annurev-bioeng-072623-044010] [abs].
- Barreto, AD; Burt, MA; Musah, S, Advancing drug discovery for glomerulopathies using stem-cell-derived kidney models., Trends in pharmacological sciences, vol 44 no. 4 (2023), pp. 204-207 [10.1016/j.tips.2022.12.001] [abs].
- Roye, Y; Musah, S, Isogenic Kidney Glomerulus Chip Engineered from Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells., Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE no. 189 (2022) [10.3791/63821] [abs].
- Musah, S, Uncovering SARS-CoV-2 kidney tropism., Nature reviews. Molecular cell biology, vol 22 no. 8 (2021) [10.1038/s41580-021-00370-w] [abs].
- , Introductions to the Community: Early-Career Researchers in the Time of COVID-19., Cell stem cell, vol 27 no. 2 (2020), pp. 200-201 [10.1016/j.stem.2020.07.016] [abs].