Q&A with Hilda Jafarah: From Childhood Experiments to Preventing Deadly Heart Rhythms
June 1, 2026Hilda Jafarah, a third-year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, is exploring how to prevent life-threatening irregular heartbeats that can occur in the days following a heart attack.
At age 7, Hilda Jafarah turned her family’s kitchen into a makeshift science lab for an experiment she read about in a book. She was thrilled — her mother, not so much.
“Everything smelled like vinegar, and my mom was not impressed with the mess, but I actually accomplished a goal in the end,” Jafarah said. “Following that protocol made something happen. That never left me.”
That simple science experiment, plus a lot of determination, laid the foundation for her research career. Now a third-year PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania, Jafarah received the PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in Drug Discovery for her research exploring how to prevent life-threatening irregular heartbeats that can occur in the days following a heart attack.
She is studying how the body’s own immune response after a heart attack can sometimes cause unintended harm by releasing proteins that damage vulnerable heart tissue. By identifying these proteins and designing ways to block them, Jafarah aims to find new ways to protect patients during recovery.
Watch this video to learn more about Jafarah and her research.
