Dr. Zubair M Ahmed

Dr. Zubair M Ahmed
Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine,USA

Biography

Education B.Sc. 1995 Medical Laboratory Technology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. M.Sc. 1998 Biological Sciences, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. Ph.D. 2002 Molecular Genetics, National Centre for Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB), University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Thesis title: Genetic and Molecular Basis of Syndromic Deafness Thesis Advisor: Drs. Tayyab Husnain and Farhat Zaheer Post Graduate Education and Training Feb 2000-Nov 2002 Pre-doctoral fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Rockville, MD, USA. Mentor: Dr. Edward R. Wilcox. Area of expertise: Molecular genetics Dec 2002-June 2003 Postdoctoral fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, NIDCD, NIH, Rockville, MD, USA. Mentor: Dr. Edward R. Wilcox. Area of expertise: Molecular genetics July 2003-May 2009 Research fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, NIDCD, NIH, Rockville, MD, USA. Mentor: Dr. Thomas B. Friedman. Area of expertise: Molecular genetics

Research Interest

Research Interests: Dr. Ahmed long-term goal is to understand how the retinal and inner ear sensory epithelia develop and function. His lab study inherited human disorders of retina and inner ear, like Usher syndrome (USH) and Oculocutaneous Albinism (OCA) to improve our understanding of these organs at the molecular level, to study the pathophysiology of these disorders in animal models for the purpose of developing new strategies to prevent and treat these neurosensory disorders. The studies under investigation are designed to answer the following broad questions: What are the precise mechanisms of various forms of hearing and vision dysfunction? What are the genetic factors that determine light sensitivity? How do the pathogenic mutations in disease-causing genes affect the ear, eye and skin structure and function? And which molecules or genetic factors can exacerbate and/or mitigate the effects of disease-causing genes? For these studies, families segregating inherited USH and OCA are being collected. Mutant mouse and zebrafish models have been developed and his lab evaluates them to understand the function of new proteins. Functional analysis of the newly identified genes associated with deaf-blindness and OCA promises new insights into the molecular mechanisms of vision and auditory development and functions and will facilitate the rational design of potential therapies.

Global Experts in the subject

Anand Kumar MA Anandkumar MA Araromi Adewale Andrew Archana Devi Dr.Ionelia Taranu Dr.Leonardo Barcelos de Paula Dr.Yunqing Ren Eyasu Ejeta Gaba Monika Gaba Punam Hegde Harsha Hiba Hazim Hamid Al-Yousuf Jaiminiabhinav K P Arun K Shanmugapriya Khosbayar Tulgaa M.Sudharani Mittal Gaurav Namrata Agarwal Navneet Sharma Nivedita Majumder Lahiri Peter Surai Saba Shafeen Samanta S Khora Samuel Kadavakollu Shibali Das Subrata Majumdar Suchandra Bhattacharyya Majumdar Surajit Bhattacharjee Thangarajan Sumathi Weng Yen-Ru Chou