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

Black Diasporic Dissolving: The Art of Performing Memory, Freedom, and Possibility promotional image

Black Diasporic Dissolving: The Art of Performing Memory, Freedom, and Possibility

Tuesday, October 27, 2026 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Virtual
In her book Contemporary PerforMemory: Dancing Through Spacetime, Historical Trauma and Diaspora in the 21st Century (2020), interdisciplinary scholar and artist, Professor Layla Zami coined the concept of perforMemory, both as a noun and as a verb. Drawing on interdisciplinary theory, interviews, performance analysis, and personal storytelling, and moving across geographies and historical entanglements she examines how contemporary dance-makers engage with historical traumas, corporeality and diaspora to reshape memory and imagine new futures.
In her talk, Zami will discuss selected performing and visual arts by Black diasporic artists grounded in African American, Caribbean and Afropean communities, with particular attention to women. Engaging Black Performance Studies and Sound Studies, she will examine how tropes of freedom, possibility and spacetime are (re-)negotiated through the intersections of traumatic memory and future-oriented artistic practice.

This event is also available via Zoom. (https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/93316439569?pwd=8MHjip3zQeClFoeeYysatUzNDJl14l.1 or using the QR code in the poster)
Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Directorship (2027–28) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Directorship (2027–28)

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

Is there a burning topic in your discipline or a topic that cuts across disciplines that we should bring to campus? Is there a format for the conversation that can energize an intellectual community around that topic? That might be the perfect topic for an Obermann Symposium!

In addition to a compelling topic, we invite co-directors to propose national and international speakers who can offer richly diverse perspectives on the symposium theme. We also want to highlight the work of UI and local...

Legal Office Hours at the Stanley with Iowa Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts promotional image

Legal Office Hours at the Stanley with Iowa Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 12:00pm to 2:00pm
Stanley Museum of Art

Are you an artist or arts organization in the University of Iowa or Iowa City community with legal questions? If so, please plan to visit the Stanley Museum of Art for Legal Office Hours with the Iowa Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (IVLA). The IVLA’s volunteer attorneys and law students will be available from 12:00 - 2:00 pm on November 4th to answer your questions and help you build your understanding of the legal environment inhabited by artists and arts organizations. We encourage you to fill...