Heidar Heidari Khoei—a postdoc in Nicolas Rivron’s lab at IMBA—has been awarded the 2025 Royan International Research Award. Heidari Khoei was selected for the honor by the Royan Institute in Tehran, Iran for his work on building human stem cell-based embryo models to uncover how early human development is regulated during the peri-implantation window.
Implantation is one of the most crucial steps of embryonic development, when the embryo embeds itself into the mother’s uterine lining. Implantation failure causes up to one third of failed pregnancies worldwide. Using blastoids – stem cell-derived models of the human embryo – Heidari Khoei and colleagues can study the first stages of embryo development, such as lineage specification and implantation without using real human embryos.
Leveraging blastoid technology, Heidari Khoei and collaborators recently identified the protein mTOR as an actionable “pause button” in human embryonic development. This discovery allows scientists to temporarily pause development, and could have significant applications for reproductive medicine. Heidari Khoei’s work also extends to how lineage balance – the correct proportion between different cell types – is maintained in the early stages of embryonic development, a key factor influencing an embryo’s ability to implant into the uterus.
Overall, Heidari Khoei’s work provides a framework for understanding early pregnancy success and offers potential applications for improving assisted reproductive technologies.
“I am deeply honored to receive this award. It is not only a personal milestone but also a recognition of the collective effort of my colleagues and mentor in the Rivron lab and our collaborators,” Heidari Khoei comments. “This achievement motivates me to continue bridging fundamental research with clinical applications to improve reproductive health.”
About Heidar Heidari Khoei
Heidar Heidari Khoei earned his PhD in human reproductive biology at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Iran, where he studied the biology of the endometrium, the inner lining of the uterus, using stem cell and organoid models. He also worked as a clinical embryologist in IVF clinics between 2015 and 2019, gaining hands-on experience with human gametes and embryos. Since 2020, Heidari is a postdoctoral researcher in the Rivron lab at IMBA, where he co-developed human blastoids. His research has been supported by the Lise Meitner Programme of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship of the European Commission. In 2025, Heidari Khoei received an ESPRIT Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund.
About the Royan International Research Award
The Royan Awards are prestigious annual scientific awards presented by the Royan Institute for outstanding Iranian and international researchers in reproductive biomedicine, stem cell biology and technology, and related fields. The Royan International Research Award (RIRA) also includes a cash prize and certificate for the recipients, who are invited to present their work at the concurrent Royan International Congress.