Karimi Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Laboratory

Soheila Karimi, BSc, MSc, PhD

Assistant Professor in Physiology and Pathophysiology
Principal Investigator, Regenerative Medicine Program
Principal Investigator, Spinal Cord Research Center
Scientist, Manitoba Neuroscience Network
Scientist, Manitoba Institute of Child Health
Faculty of Medicine
University of Manitoba

Soheila.Karimi@med.umanitoba.ca

Note to prospective graduate students and postdoctoral trainees:
Karimi laboratory offers training program in neuroscience and stem cell research.
Please refer to our Research Program and Positions Available pages for further information.

Areas of research interests:

• Spinal cord repair and regeneration

• Regenerative Medicine
• Neural Stem Cell Therapy
• Neurobiology of spinal cord injury
• Myelin repair
• Oligodendrocyte differentiation
• Reactive astrogliosis and neuroinflammation
• Preclinical stem cell-based and pharmacological therapies for spinal cord injury
• Stem cell/neural tissue culture studies
• Neurological recovery after spinal cord injury
• Neuroanatomical and imaging approaches
  

Dr. Karimi's Academic Background:

Dr. Karimi received her PhD degree in Neuroscience from the University of Saskatchewan in 2001. She then undertook a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Research at the Toronto Western Research Institute. During her graduate and postdoctoral training, Dr. Karimi received a number of research awards including postdoctoral fellowships from the CIHR, the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. In 2006, she was the recipient of the prestigious Synthes Award from The American Association of Neurological Surgeons in USA for her work on spinal cord injury and neural stem cell therapy.
In 2007, Dr. Karimi joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto as an adjunct Assistant Professor until 2009 when she moved to the University of Manitoba. Dr. Karimi has had a long term interest in spinal cord repair and regeneration with a special focus on the application of neural stem cells for the treatment of spinal cord injury.
Current research in her neuroscience laboratory has focused on regenerative medicine strategies to therapeutically optimize the application of neural stem cells for tissue regeneration and recovery of function after spinal cord injury. Her laboratory is physically located within the newly constructed state of the art Regenerative Medicine Program at the University of Manitoba. Karimi's program is affiliated with the Neuroscience and Spinal Cord Injury Division of the Department of Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Karimi's research has been consistently funded by national (CIHR, NSERC, CFI), international (Craig Neilsen Fnd and Christopher and Dana Reeve Fnd) and Provincial and Institutional grants (MHRC, Canadian Paraplegic Association, MICH, HSC Fnd, MMSF, URGP, Thorlakson Fnd).

 Academic Appointments and Training:

• Assistant Professor (Dept. of Physiology and Regenerative Medicine Program), University of Manitoba, 2010-present
• Adjunct Assistant Professor (Dept. of Surgery), University of Toronto, 2007-2009
• Staff Neuroscientist, Toronto Western Research Institute, 2006-2009
• Postdoctoral Fellow (Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Therapy) , Toronto Western Research Institute, Canada, 2001-2006
• PhD (Neuroscience/Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology), University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1997-2001
• MSc (Medical Histology, Dept. of Anatomy), University of Tehran, 1990-1992
• BSc (Animal Biology, Dept. of Biology), University of Shiraz, 1985-1989