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DPAG News:

The future of stroke treatment

Mootaz Salman appointed Departmental Research Lecturer

Fellowship awarded to Mootaz Salman could pave the way for early intervention in Parkinson’s

Mootaz Salman recognised by premier global society for Neurochemists

• Member of the DPAG Graduate Studies Committee
• Member of the DPAG Outreach and Public Engagement Working Group
• Founding member of the aquaporin sub-committee, IUPHAR/Guide to Pharmacology. British Pharmacological Society

Research Interests

I joined the Wade-Martins group in late 2020. As part of Oxford Parkinson’s Disease Centre (OPDC), the aim of my current project is to contribute to the development of novel therapeutic target discovery for Parkinson’s. I am using CRISPR/Cas9 genome engineering of highly physiologically-relevant human iPSC lines from Parkinson’s patients differentiated into dopaminergic neurons to investigate molecular disease mechanisms and validate new therapeutic hits. The project is in collaboration with GSK^® which offers an exciting opportunity to work at the translational interface of academic and industry target discovery and drug development.

Biography

After graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmacy with Honours (BPharm(Hons)) from the University of Mosul, I studied for Masters and Doctoral degrees at Sheffield Hallam University. Working with Professor Nicola Woodroofe and Dr Matthew Conner, my PhD project investigated the mechanisms of water channel translocation in human brain cells. I discovered a novel pharmacological framework for developing new drugs to treat traumatic brain injury, brain oedema and stroke.

I held my first postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital working with Professor Tom Kirchhausen. The project was in collaboration with Biogen^®. I aimed to understand the cellular physiology of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in order to exploit the mechanisms involved in improving the effectiveness of therapeutic antibodies. The project involved developing an in vitro microphysiological 3D model that can be used for multiple high-resolution imaging modalities. I used transmission electron microscopy (TEM), 3D live fluorescence imaging, spinning disk confocal microscopy and advanced lattice light sheet microscopy (LLSM) to study the trans-BBB trafficking of fluorescently-labelled therapeutic proteins and antibodies.

Team

Dr Kalina Naidoo (Postdoctoral Research Assistant).

Dr Ewa Grassin (Visiting Postdoctoral Scientist from University of Geneva).

Ms Elba Molpeceres Sierra (MSc student from University of Bordeaux).