Dr. Navid Bavi

Biography

Navid Bavi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at UCLA Medical School. He specializes in mechanobiology, bioengineering, biophysics, and structural biology. With a background in mechanical engineering, Dr. Bavi focuses on the mechanics of tissues, cells, and proteins. He earned his PhD in the Martinac Lab, where he studied mechanically-gated ion channels in bacteria and mammals, particularly their response to forces exerted on lipid bilayers. Following his doctoral studies, he completed a short post-doctoral training in the Poole Lab, where he researched how mechanically-gated channels adapt to mechanical changes at the cell-matrix interface, an essential factor in texture sensation perception. Dr. Bavi's research continued as a Chicago Fellow in the Perozo Lab, where his primary focus was on identifying genes that regulate mechanosensitivity in tissues. He also led projects on Prestin, a motor protein crucial for sound amplification in the inner ear. His high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy studies of Prestin have uncovered complex molecular mechanisms vital to cochlear amplification. To advance his research, Dr. Bavi employs diverse techniques like multi-scale modeling, cryo-electron microscopy, and patch clamp electrophysiology, with the aim of unraveling fundamental mechano-physiological phenomena at the molecular level, exploring potential translational applications.

Research Interests