Zahi A. Fayad, PhD, is the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Medical Imaging and Bioengineering at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also serves as Vice Chair for Research in Radiology and holds professorships in Medicine (Cardiology) and AI & Human Health. He is the founding Director of the BioMedical Engineering and Imaging Institute (BMEII), home to one of the nation’s top NIH-funded radiology programs (#2 in 2024 per Blue Ridge rankings). Dr. Fayad also co-leads the Mount Sinai system-wide Healthspan initiative, coordinating research, clinical, and digital infrastructure to advance precision prevention across the enterprise.

Dr. Fayad is Principal Investigator on multiple major grants, including five NIH-funded projects (3 R01s, 2 P01s) supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIAID, and NIDA. A leader in biomedical engineering, his interdisciplinary work integrates advanced imaging, AI, and nanomedicine to drive precision medicine, particularly in cardiovascular disease.

He is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (since 2018) with over ~190,000 citations and an h-index of 142. His seminal contributions include MRI vessel wall imaging (leading to CARADS), FDG PET imaging of vascular inflammation, and defining the link between amygdala activity, systemic inflammation, and cardiovascular risk. His research on HDL-based nanoparticles for immune modulation is progressing toward clinical translation for cancer, autoimmune diseases, and transplant rejection.

Dr. Fayad’s current projects span cardiovascular, neuroimmune, and transplant-focused research, including stress-induced immune dysregulation; mitral valve prolapse and arrhythmia risk; cocaine use–related carotid atherosclerosis and cognitive impairment; cardiac sarcoidosis therapy monitoring; and immune tracking in organ rejection using nanobiologics.

He also leads the Mount Sinai DigiTwin Project, an AI-driven platform designed to personalize health optimization by integrating imaging, real-time physiologic data, and advanced analytics—initially focused on cardiovascular health and now expanding to whole-person healthspan modeling. Dr. Fayad and colleagues at Mount Sinai are finalists in the XPRIZE Healthspan competition, where they are evaluating a multimodal strategy to meaningfully extend human healthspan.