Dr. Zubair M AhmedDepartment 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