Anastasia Khokhlova

Research

Professor Anastasia Khokhlova’s research focuses on cardiac electromechanical coupling – the processes that link electrical excitation, calcium signaling and mechanical contraction in heart cells. Her work investigates how mechanical load, pathological conditions, and pharmacologic interventions alter cardiomyocyte function and contribute to arrhythmias and impaired cardiac contraction.

She combines cellular electrophysiology, calcium and contractility measurements, fluorescence imaging, human induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes, cardiac organoid models and computational modeling. The long-term goal of her research is to identify mechanisms of cardiac dysfunction and develop more predictive human models for studying cardiovascular disease and therapeutic responses.
   

Biography

Professor Anastasia Khokhlova joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 2023. She earned her Ph.D. in Biophysics from Moscow State University and completed advanced research training in physiology and experimental cardiovascular medicine at Okayama University in Japan and the Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine in Germany. Before joining WashU, she served as a team leader at the Institute of Immunology and Physiology in Russia. Her work has been recognized through the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds Fellowship, the Japan–Russia Youth Exchange Fellowship for Young Researchers, the Carl Storm International Diversity Fellowship, and other awards.