Dr Mohammad Arastoo

Biography

I developed a keen interest in brain related research while studying neuroscience at the University of Dundee. I followed this interest by undertaking an MSc course in translational neuroscience at Queen Mary University of London where I studied disorders of the nervous system in detail and completed an impactful project on peripheral nerve regeneration. I next moved on to my PhD project at the University of St Andrews, where I studied the newly discovered and highly calcium sensitive phospholipase C-η (eta) enzymes and assessed their relevance to brain disorders. It became apparent that these enzymes are involved in early brain development and play a role in the Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) signalling cascade. Following my PhD, I had the opportunity to study the SHH signalling cascade in greater detail at the University of Leeds, where I spent two years as a research fellow. My project involved researching the role that β-arrestin proteins play within this signalling cascade, both in the canonical and in the less well studied non-canonical pathway.

Since 2017, I have been appointed as a research fellow at the Scottish Biologics Facility, working in collaboration with TauRx. My work encompasses the use of a panel of high affinity, in-house generated antibodies that span the entirety of the tau protein. These antibodies allow me to study the tau protein in detail and are currently being assessed for their therapeutic potential. By using these antibodies, the main focus of my research is to develop a blood based diagnostic assay for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0805-4949