Research Summary

Dr. Flora (Fatemeh) Momen-Heravi is an internationally recognized clinician-scientist and periodontist whose work bridges mucosal immunology, periodontology, cancer biology, and precision medicine. As the R. Earl Robinson Distinguished Professor of Periodontology and Division Chief of Periodontology at Department of Orofacial Sciences, she leads pioneering research into the immune system’s interactions with the tumor microenvironment and inflammatory diseases, including oral and periodontal disease.

Dr. Momen-Heravi’s multidisciplinary research program integrates experimental, computational, and translational approaches to uncover disease mechanisms, identify biomarkers, and develop targeted therapeutics. Her laboratory is advancing knowledge in cancer immunology, extracellular vesicles, inflammatory signaling, and precision therapeutics, with ongoing projects in exosome biology, host-pathogen interactions, and genome engineering using CRISPR/Cas.

With a strong background in translational science, Dr. Momen-Heravi previously founded and led the Head and Neck Cancer Research Group at Columbia University Medical Center before joining UCSF in 2024. She has trained extensively at Harvard Medical School, UMASS Medical School, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications. Her research is supported by multiple NIH and foundation grants, including R35, R01, and U01 awards, and she has been honored with numerous prestigious awards, such as the AACR-The Mark Foundation ‘Science of the Patient’ Award, the NIH Maximizing Investigators Research Award, and the IADR Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Momen-Heravi is passionate about mentorship, scientific innovation, and bridging health disparities in cancer and periodontal disease. Her lab welcomes motivated postdoctoral fellows, PhD candidates, and dental students interested in cutting-edge research at the intersection of oral and systemic health, immunology, and precision medicine. Dr. Momen-Heravi takes pride in providing full scope of periodontal and implants surgery to patients and manage medically compromised patients and patients with history of cancer.

Research Funding

  • December 8, 2023 - November 30, 2028 - Single-cell RNA-sequencing for functional analysis of monocytes and macrophages in periodontitis , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R01DE032433
  • September 1, 2023 - August 31, 2028 - Immune and transcriptomic biomarkers of progressive oral premalignant lesions , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: U01DE033351
  • August 10, 2023 - July 31, 2028 - Role of Long Non-Coding RNAs in Exosome Biogenesis , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R35GM151259
  • July 7, 2021 - June 30, 2023 - Identifying Molecular Subtypes of Head and Neck Cancer in Patients with African Ancestry , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R21DE031112
  • May 1, 2020 - April 30, 2022 - Monocyte and Macrophage Signaling in the Pathogenesis of Periodontitis in Diabetes , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: NIH, Sponsor Award ID: R03DE029546

Education

  • 2009
    DDS, Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences
  • 2013
    Postdoc, Molecular Biology, Translational Medicine, Harvard Medical School
  • 2015
    Postdoc, Immunology, RNA Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School
  • 2015
    MPH, Public Health/Quantitative Methods (Biostatistics), Harvard School of Public Health
  • 2016
    Fellowship, Bioinformatician/ Biostatistician, Brigham and Women Hospital, Division of Network Medicine
  • 2016
    PhD, Molecular Biology/ Biotechnology, University of Westminster
  • 2018
    Residency, Periodontics, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

Honors & Awards

  • 2023
    IADR Young Investigator Award
  • 2022
    Finalist, Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance 
  • 2022
    Finalist, AADCOR/CADR Joseph Lister Award for New Investigator
  • 2022
    AACR Bayer Innovation and Discovery Award
  • 2022
    Junior Faculty Who Contribute to the Diversity Goals of the University Award, CUIMC
  • 2021
    Irving Institute Scholar in Community-Based Research, CUIMC
  • 2021
    Finalist at Bud and Linda Tarrson Fellowship award from the American Academy of Periodontology
  • 2021
    AACR-Mark Foundation Cancer Research Award
  • 2020
    Anne D. Haffajee Fellowship, American Association of Dental Research
  • 2020
    American Association of Immunology New Investigator Travel Award
     

Selected Publications

  1. Jain S, Bai X, Mallick S, Kinghorn B, May B, Yao AG, Allen-Gipson D, Zhang X, Henick BS, Momen-Heravi F, Carrot-Zhang J, Taylor AM. Amplification of MYC and Its Enhancer Correlates With Genetic Ancestry in Lung Squamous Cell Carcinoma. JCO Precis Oncol. 2024 Oct; 8:e2400223.  View on PubMed
  2. Shimonosono M, Morimoto M, Hirose W, Tomita Y, Matsuura N, Flashner S, Ebadi MS, Okayasu EH, Lee CY, Britton WR, Martin C, Wuertz BR, Parikh AS, Sachdeva UM, Ondrey FG, Atigadda VR, Elmets CA, Abrams JA, Muir AB, Klein-Szanto AJ, Weinberg KI, Momen-Heravi F, Nakagawa H. Modeling Epithelial Homeostasis and Perturbation in Three-Dimensional Human Esophageal Organoids. Biomolecules. 2024 Sep 05; 14(9).  View on PubMed
  3. Viet CT, Asam KR, Yu G, Dyer EC, Kochanny S, Thomas CM, Callahan NF, Morlandt AB, Cheng AC, Patel AA, Roden DF, Young S, Melville J, Shum J, Walker PC, Nguyen KK, Kidd SN, Lee SC, Folk GS, Viet DT, Grandhi A, Deisch J, Ye Y, Momen-Heravi F, Pearson AT, Aouizerat BE. Artificial intelligence-based epigenomic, transcriptomic and histologic signatures of tobacco use in oral squamous cell carcinoma. NPJ Precis Oncol. 2024 Jun 08; 8(1):130.  View on PubMed
  4. Nickerson JA, Momen-Heravi F. Long non-coding RNAs: roles in cellular stress responses and epigenetic mechanisms regulating chromatin. Nucleus. 2024 Dec; 15(1):2350180.  View on PubMed
  5. Shimonosono M, Morimoto M, Hirose W, Tomita Y, Matsuura N, Flashner S, Ebadi MS, Okayasu EH, Lee CY, Britton WR, Martin C, Wuertz BR, Parikh AS, Sachdeva UM, Ondrey FG, Atigadda VR, Elmets CA, Abrams JA, Muir AB, Klein-Szanto AJ, Weinberg KI, Momen-Heravi F, Nakagawa H. Modeling epithelial homeostasis and perturbation in three-dimensional human esophageal organoids. bioRxiv. 2024 May 22.  View on PubMed
  6. Donelian A, Liu Z, Trager MH, Momen-Heravi F, Samie FH. Racial and ethnic disparities in basal cell carcinoma treated by Mohs micrographic surgery: the Columbia experience. Arch Dermatol Res. 2024 May 11; 316(5):151.  View on PubMed
  7. Dubey S, Chen Z, Jiang YJ, Talis A, Molotkov A, Ali A, Mintz A, Momen-Heravi F. Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs)-based gene delivery platform for cell-specific CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. Theranostics. 2024; 14(7):2777-2793.  View on PubMed
  8. Chen F, Tang C, Yang F, Ekpenyong A, Qin R, Xie J, Momen-Heravi F, Saba NF, Teng Y. HSP90 inhibition suppresses tumor glycolytic flux to potentiate the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Sci Adv. 2024 Feb 23; 10(8):eadk3663.  View on PubMed
  9. Al Haydar B, Kang P, Momen-Heravi F. Efficacy of Horizontal Alveolar Ridge Expansion Through the Alveolar Ridge Split Procedure: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Oral Maxillofac Implants. 2023 Dec 12; 38(6):1083-1096.  View on PubMed
  10. Wu YC, Kissner M, Momen-Heravi F. A comprehensive multiparameter flow cytometry panel for immune profiling and functional studies of frozen tissue, bone marrow, and spleen. J Immunol Methods. 2023 Apr; 515:113444.  View on PubMed
  11. Mezghani N, Yao A, Vasilyeva D, Kaplan N, Shackelford A, Yoon A, Phillipone E, Dubey S, Schwartz GK, Taylor AM, Momen-Heravi F. Molecular Subtypes of Head and Neck Cancer in Patients of African Ancestry. Clin Cancer Res. 2023 Mar 01; 29(5):910-920.  View on PubMed
  12. Parikh AS, Yu VX, Flashner S, Okolo OB, Lu C, Henick BS, Momen-Heravi F, Puram SV, Teknos T, Pan Q, Nakagawa H. Patient-derived three-dimensional culture techniques model tumor heterogeneity in head and neck cancer. Oral Oncol. 2023 Mar; 138:106330.  View on PubMed
  13. Kang P, Sanz-Miralles E, Li J, Linden E, Momen-Heravi F. Efficacy of Er,Cr:YSGG Laser Application in Nonsurgical Treatment of Peri-implantitis: A Human Randomized Controlled Trial. Int J Periodontics Restorative Dent. 2023; 43(1):e1-e9.  View on PubMed
  14. Flashner S, Martin C, Matsuura N, Shimonosono M, Tomita Y, Morimoto M, Okolo O, Yu VX, Parikh AS, Klein-Szanto AJP, Yan K, Gabre JT, Lu C, Momen-Heravi F, Rustgi AK, Nakagawa H. Modeling Oral-Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in 3D Organoids. J Vis Exp. 2022 Dec 23; (190).  View on PubMed
  15. Tanagala KKK, Morin-Baxter J, Carvajal R, Cheema M, Dubey S, Nakagawa H, Yoon A, Cheng YL, Taylor A, Nickerson J, Mintz A, Momen-Heravi F. SP140 inhibits STAT1 signaling, induces IFN-? in tumor-associated macrophages, and is a predictive biomarker of immunotherapy response. J Immunother Cancer. 2022 Dec; 10(12).  View on PubMed
  16. Capaccione KM, Doubrovin M, Braumuller B, Leibowitz D, Bhatt N, Momen-Heravi F, Molotkov A, Kissner M, Goldner K, Soffing M, Ali A, Mintz A. Evaluating the Combined Anticancer Response of Checkpoint Inhibitor Immunotherapy and FAP-Targeted Molecular Radiotherapy in Murine Models of Melanoma and Lung Cancer. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Sep 21; 14(19).  View on PubMed
  17. Li J, Momen-Heravi F, Wu X, He K. Mechanism of METTL14 and m6A modification of lncRNA MALAT1 in the proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. Oral Dis. 2023 Jul; 29(5):2012-2026.  View on PubMed
  18. Agrafioti P, Morin-Baxter J, Tanagala KKK, Dubey S, Sims P, Lalla E, Momen-Heravi F. Decoding the role of macrophages in periodontitis and type 2 diabetes using single-cell RNA-sequencing. FASEB J. 2022 Feb; 36(2):e22136.  View on PubMed
  19. Shimonosono M, Tanaka K, Flashner S, Takada S, Matsuura N, Tomita Y, Sachdeva UM, Noguchi E, Sangwan V, Ferri L, Momen-Heravi F, Yoon AJ, Klein-Szanto AJ, Diehl JA, Nakagawa H. Alcohol Metabolism Enriches Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cancer Stem Cells That Survive Oxidative Stress via Autophagy. Biomolecules. 2021 Oct 07; 11(10).  View on PubMed
  20. Kim H, Momen-Heravi F, Chen S, Hoffmann P, Kebschull M, Papapanou PN. Differential DNA methylation and mRNA transcription in gingival tissues in periodontal health and disease. J Clin Periodontol. 2021 Sep; 48(9):1152-1164.  View on PubMed

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