Renat Shaykhiev, MD, PhD

Dr. Renat Shaykhiev is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Section of Section of Pulmonary Diseases, Critical Care, and Environmental Medicine, at Tulane University School of Medicine.

Dr. Shaykhiev obtained his MD degree from Kazan State Medical University (Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia) in 2000, and his PhD degree (Dr. med., Summa cum laude) from the University of Marburg (Marburg, Germany) in 2007. After completing postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medical College in 2009, Dr. Shaykhiev joined Weill Cornell as faculty where he established his NIH-funded research program on human lung disease biology and continued his work until joining Tulane in 2025.

Dr. Shaykhiev’s research interests include understanding principles of human lung tissue organization, homeostasis and regeneration, and mechanisms of lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial lung diseases (pulmonary fibrosis), and lung cancer. The unique focus of Dr. Shaykhiev’s research is region-specific organization and regeneration of human distal airways and bronchioalveolar transitional region as a niche of pathologic changes in lung aging and chronic lung diseases in humans.

Dr. Shaykhiev’s laboratory utilizes anatomical and tissue analysis approaches as well as patient-derived region-specific stem cell-based tissue and disease models using human lung tissue samples from individuals with and without lung disease to understand mechanisms of distal airway regeneration and its abnormalities in lung disease at single-cell level and in patient- and tissue-specific manner. The ultimate goal of Dr. Shaykhiev’s research is to build the scientific foundation for novel therapies that will prevent development and progression of human lung diseases by restoring physiological mechanisms responsible for normal lung tissue maintenance and regeneration.