Yerebakan Lab Staff
Can Yerebakan, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Can.Yerebakan@NationwideChildrens.org
Can Yerebakan, MD, PhD, is the associate chief of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Professor of Surgery at the Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is the director of the Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship program and principal investigator in the Center for Cardiovascular Research.
Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Yerebakan completed his medical school at the Albert-Ludwigs-University, his surgical training with cardiovascular surgery board certification and his PhD in renowned institutions in Germany. After completing a pediatric cardiothoracic surgery fellowship program at Children’s National Hospital in DC mentored by Dr. Richard Jonas, Dr. Yerebakan returned to Germany to as a faculty at the prestigious Pediatric Heart Center at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen where he has developed his expertise on the hybrid strategy for hypoplastic left heart syndrome at international level before accepting an invitation to join the faculty at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC in 2017.
Dr. Yerebakan’s research interests include alternative strategies and regenerative therapies for congenital heart disease. Dr. Yerebakan has conducted pioneering experimental work in regenerative therapies for congenital heart disease with first time application of autologous umbilical cord stem cells for right heart regeneration. He is particularly interested in improving outcomes of children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Dr. Yerebakan has received several grants, awards and recognitions for his continued work in improving the outcomes of children with congenital heart disease. He has contributed to over 150 peer-reviewed publications and over 150 presentations in international scientific meetings in three languages. Throughout his career, Dr. Yerebakan has mentored many international doctoral students, postdoctoral research fellows and clinical fellows.
He is active on the editorial boards of several high-impact journals. He is an active member of several professional organizations, including the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society and the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery and the German Society for Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery.
Mohammed Mashali, MS, PhD
Research Scientist
Mohammed.Mashali@NationwideChildrens.org
Mohammed Mashali, MS, PhD, earned his bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine in 2009, a master’s degree in surgery in 2012 and a PhD in regenerative medicine in 2018. He then spent seven years at The Ohio State University College of Medicine in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, advancing through postdoctoral and research scientist roles before joining Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Mashali’s research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, with a particular emphasis on heart failure, examining myocardial contractility, ventricular kinetics, calcium regulation and age-related changes in cardiac performance. His work also explores mitochondrial dysfunction, the cardiovascular effects of cancer therapies and the interactions between skeletal muscle disease and cardiac complications.
At Nationwide Children’s, Dr. Mashali is expanding his work to congenital heart disease. His current project involves developing a chick embryo model of hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) to investigate how altered blood flow affects ventricular growth and to define potential windows for early therapeutic intervention.
