Dr. Rafikova has worked in cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases for over twenty years. She is a translational researcher who focuses on precision medicine. Her research interests include sex-specific therapeutic approaches in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a deadly disease with no effective therapy. Her research team investigates biomarker-driven approaches to identify early-stage disease using multiple preclinical models and patient samples.

Dr. Rafikova is also dedicated to the design and test of unique peptide-based therapeutics that, in contrast to the classical “small molecule” inhibitors, specifically attenuate disease-driven signaling without affecting the normal physiological function of the protein. Five active patent applications aimed at treating different cardiovascular diseases have resulted from this important work.