Alireza Mashaghi is a principal investigator at the LACDR Division of Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Leiden University, since 2016. He leads the Medical Systems Biophysics and Bioengineering group. His lab conducts experimental and computational research at the interface of physics, engineering, and biomedicine.

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Alireza Mashaghi is a physician-scientist and Principal Investigator (PI) at the LACDR Division of Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Leiden University. He leads the Medical Systems Biophysics and Bioengineering (MSBB) group, which conducts research at the interface of physics, engineering, and biomedicine. These studies are primarily directed towards understanding biological heterogeneity in human diseases at the molecular, cellular, organ, and/or organism scales.

Biomolecular research in the Mashaghi lab is focused on the single-molecule analysis of biomolecular fold dynamics, using innovative experimental and computational approaches. Mashaghi and his co-workers pioneered the use of single-molecule force spectroscopy and circuit topology for studying protein folding. Furthermore, the team studies the implications of circuit topology and network topology for the functioning of various complex systems including biomolecular condensates, 3D genome architecture, biochemical reaction networks, and human disease networks. The hope is to demonstrate how these topology analyses help solve biomedical problems such as molecular (mis)folding puzzles and medical diagnostic problems.

The Mashaghi lab also applies engineering analyses and design approaches to problems in virology and immunology using single-cell and chip-based approaches. The lab co-pioneered the development of organ chips for viral studies and was the first to develop organ chips for viral hemorrhagic syndromes, including Ebola and Lassa virus diseases. Samples from such engineered disease models are then subjected to high-resolution physicochemical analysis of disease and drug effect. By combining single-cell chemical analysis tools and single-cell physical/mechanical manipulation approaches, the lab explores critical links between mechanics and metabolism in human disease biology. In this regard, the lab pioneered the use of single-cell force methods such as optical tweezers and acoustic force spectroscopy in studying the mechanobiology of immune cells in health and disease.

Mashaghi did his PhD (Cum Laude) in physics and bionanoscience at Delft University of Technology and ETH Zurich. He holds a BSc degree in chemistry (with extensive additional coursework in pure mathematics), MSc degree in (bio)physics and an MD degree in clinical medicine with a fellowship in ophthalmology and immunology. During his academic career, Mashaghi has been affiliated with various academic institutions including Harvard Medical School, AMOLF Institute, ETH Zurich, MPI of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, and MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences.

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