Dr. Mehdi Jorfi completed his Ph.D. in Neural Engineering at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his Ph.D., he executed a multi-institutional experimental research program on developing biologically-inspired mechanically-dynamic intracortical microelectrodes for neural interfacing. This work derived fundamental insights into our understating of the multifaceted role that neuroinflammation may play in disrupting both biologic and abiologic components of the overall neural interface circuit. Dr. Jorfi was awarded the Faculty Science Prize for the best Ph.D. dissertation in Experimental Sciences. He then moved to MIT as a postdoctoral fellow, where he worked on creating “human physiome on a chip” platform to integrate ten micro-organs to analyze human cellular responses to inflammatory cues and apply them for therapeutic interventions. In 2016, he pursued postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School with interest in integrating neurobiology and engineering disciplines to address high-impact problems in neuroscience and medicine. Dr. Jorfi joined the faculty at the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2019 with a joint appointment at the Massachusetts General Center for Engineering in Medicine & Surgery.

Dr. Jorfi’s current research involves two main thrusts: i) Developing new tools to interrogate the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease using microphysiological systems that can closely emulate pathogenic events in the brain. ii) Identifying novel peripheral blood markers from leukocytes and erythrocytes to facilitate diagnosis and prognosis in Alzheimer’s disease patients.