Parekh Image

Kalpaj R. Parekh, MBBS

Nicholas P. Rossi Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery

Chair, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Professor of Surgery - Cardiothoracic Surgery
Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology


The Parekh Lab:
Research led by Dr. Kal Parekh focuses on airway stem cell depletion as a mechanism for pulmonary allograft failure. The lab has developed a clinically relevant animal model of lung transplantation in the ferret. Orthotopically transplanted ferret lung allografts develop the full spectrum of inflammatory and fibrotic pathology that is seen in human allografts. Our lab leverages this model to investigate how impaired epithelial regeneration leads to fibrosis and to discover the mechanisms that lead to the depletion of endogenous airway stem cells in transplanted lungs. We use quantitative approaches to study airway stem cells throughout the lung and investigate mechanisms that impact their multipotency and self-renewal in health and disease.

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Events

AI Is Not Your Friend: Cautions and Vents about Its Uses and Abuses in the Creation of Scholarly Publications promotional image

AI Is Not Your Friend: Cautions and Vents about Its Uses and Abuses in the Creation of Scholarly Publications

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 3:00pm to 4:00pm
111 Church Street

On Tuesday, Oct. 6, from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Walter Biggins, editor-in-chief at University of Pennsylvania Press, will offer his perspective as both a longtime acquiring editor and as a writer on how the advent of AI affects the present and possible futures of scholarly publishing. In particular, he will discuss how the emerging technology creates concerns and unresolved tensions — ethical, legal, and otherwise — in publishing around intellectual property...

Application Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (Summer 2027) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (Summer 2027)

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (IDRG) foster collaborative scholarship and creative work by offering recipients time and space to exchange new ideas leading to invention, creation, and publication. IDRG groups work at the Obermann Center for two weeks, usually in July and/or August. Applicants propose work on a project with colleagues from across the University, across disciplines within their own department, or with colleagues from other parts of the country or the world. Projects...

Holding Space: Stories of Interdisciplinary Collaboration — Counterpoint event featuring Stephanie Miracle promotional image

Holding Space: Stories of Interdisciplinary Collaboration — Counterpoint event featuring Stephanie Miracle

Tuesday, October 13, 2026 5:00pm to 6:15pm
Voxman Music Building

Join us to celebrate the interdisciplinary work of University of Iowa choreographer and assistant professor of dance Stephanie Miracle, recipient of the 2026 Obermann Interdisciplinary Achievement Award.

Miracle will bring together dance, engineering, and the humanities in a brief improvisational performance featuring dancers Bea Beaman and Trinity Woody performing alongside robots built by the University of Iowa College of Engineering, with narration by Eric Gidal and music by Jean-François...