Research Seminar : Proud moment for Memons

Dr Bushra Ahmed Godil's Public Seminar on Parkinson's Disease and Stem Cell   

Wednesday, 21^st May 2014 from 15:00 to 16:00 (BST)

Room A004, Park Square Campus, University of Bedfordshire, Luton – Tickets Available

“Developing a human cell model of Parkinson’s disease”

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by uncontrollable shaking, slowness of movement and poor cognitive development. It is due to the loss of dopamine containing neurons resulting low levels of dopamine (a chemical messenger) production in the region of the brain which controls the movement and balance. This dopamine deficiency leads to the development of PD.

One of the weaknesses of the existing approaches in PD research is the lack of relevant human model. Although PD is a disease only found in Human, the lack of relevant human model has led the scientific community to use animal models and different cell models which unfortunately have some limitations.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to create a human-related model and find the mechanism of the development of PD in a single dopamine-containing neuron, which will be essential to elucidate the mechanism (s) of cell death.

The aim of this seminar is to present the validity of our Human cellular model for PD and update the local community on the developments of PD research at the University of Bedfordshire.

The link of the seminar is live now. Please follow the link below to register yourself, it is free:

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dr-bushra-ahmeds-public-seminar-on-parkinsons-disease-and-stem-cell-tickets-11399557383

Its proud moment for Memon community to have such a talent and leading Memon lady. You can find Dr. Bushra Ahmed Godil's profile in the respective Bedfordshire University link given below:

http://www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/departments/science/staff/bushra-ahmed

JazakAllah. 

(Request to attend: All those who can attend the seminar on the given date and time, please register yourself and get the free ticket online and support with your presence. )

Below given in the short profile of Dr. Bushra Ahmed Godil.

Principal Lecturer in Biochemistry and Course Leader for Biomedical Science

Bushra's PhD was related to the study of neurodegenerative disorders, learning and memory. After completion of her PhD she moved to the USA for post-doctoral studies and joined Dr Martha Pierson's lab at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Texas followed by Scott-Rotchey Research Center, Auburn University Alabama. Her post-doctoral studies were related to epilepsy, programmed cell death and gene therapy.

On arriving in the UK she joined Dr Patrick Anderson's lab at the University College London (UCL). There, her project was to determine the role of certain genes involved in axonal regeneration following brain injury using gene therapy technology, she joined the University of Bedfordshire in 2005.

Qualifications

• PhD in Neuroscience, Kagawa Medical University, Japan 
• MSc, Karachi, Pakistan
• BSc, Karachi, Pakistan
• FHEA, University of Bedfordshire

Research Interests

• Gene therapy
• Brain injury
• Neuronal survival
• Memory impairment
• Programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Research Projects

• The conditional inactivation of genes using Cre recombinase system and gene therapy technology. Inactivating genes in vivo is an important technique for establishing their function in the adult nervous system.
• The role of RNA binding protein(s) in regulation of cytoskeletal genes in rat brain and in embryonic cortical cultured cells under both normal and RNA binding protein's over expressed conditions utilizing viral vectors to transfer the gene to non-dividing cells. 
• Stem cell research, which offers great potential to treat neurodegenerative disorders.

External Roles

• Fellow of IBMS
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy
• Member of Society for Neuroscience

Selected Publications

• Ahmed B.Y., Hasnain O., Krzysztof Nowak and Qasim Azeem
  "Neuroprotective role of olives in Parkinson disease: Future treatment potential?" in a process of submission.
• Ahmed B.Y., Hasnain O., Satfford R., Gujar A., Sihotra S., Howard M., Moradiya V., Patel K., "Hyperphosphorylation of CREB induced by 6OHDA treatment in human dopaminergic neurons: a kinetic study of cellular distribution of total CREB and phospho-CREB following oxidative stress. Neuroreport 24(2013) 757-62.
• Chaudhry Z. L. and Ahmed B. Y. Caspase-2 and caspase-8 trigger caspase-3 activation following 6-OHDA -induced stress in human dopaminergic neurons differentiated from ReNVM stem cells. Neurological Research 35 (2013) 435-440
• Ahmed B. Y. Exercise as a neuroprotective mechanism in Parkinson's disease: Future treatment potential? British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 4:11(2008).This article is available at www.bjnn.co.uk (November 2008). (Invited Review Article)
• Jones E., Adcock, I I. M., Ahmed B.Y. and Punchard N., Modulation of LPS stimulated NF-kappaB mediated iNOS expression by PKC and JAK2, Journal of inflammation4:23 (2007) This article is available at www.journal-inflammation.com/ (24 November 2007).
• Ahmed B.Y., Chakravarthy S., Eggers R., Hermens W,T.J.M.C.,  Zhang J.Y., Nicolu S., Levelett C., Sablitzky F., Anderson P., Lieberman A. R., and Verhaagen J., Efficient delivery of Cre-recombinase to adult mouse brain using adeno-associated and lentiviral vectors, BMC Neuroscience 5 (2004) 4-15 (This article is available at www.biomedcentral.com/147-22025/5/4).
• Samoylova T.I., Ahmed B.Y., Vodyanoy V., Morrison N.E., Samoylova A.M., Globa L.P., Baker H.J., and Cox N.R., Targeting peptides for microglia identified via phage display. J. Neuroimmunology127 (2002) 13-21
• Ahmed B. Y., Yamaguchi F., Tsumura T., Gotoh T., Sugimoto K., Tai Y., Konishi R., Kobayashi R. and Tokuda M., Expression and subcellular localization of multifunctional calmodulin-dependent protein kinases-I, II and –IV are altered in rat hippocampal CA1 neurons after induction of long term potentiation. Neuroscience letters 290 (2000)149-153.
• Chen Y-R., Meyer C., Ahmed B. Y., Yao Z. and Tan T-H., Caspase-mediated cleavage and functional changes of hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1). Oncogene 18(1999) 7370-7377
• Tokuda M., Ahmed B. Y., Miyamoto O., Lu Y-F., Matsui H., and Hatase O., Involvement of calmodulin-dependent protein kinases I and IV in long term potentiation. Brain research, 755 (1997) 162-166
• Hiroka K., Tokuda M., Tsumura T., Ahmed B. Y., Itano T., Matsui H. and Hatase O., Reticalmin: A novel calcium calmodulin dependent protein kinase IV like protein in rat retina. Vision research, 37 (1997) 2029-2033.
• Ahmed B. Y., Toyoshima T., Yamaguchi S., Jin L., Itano T., Tokuda M., Murakami T.H., and Hatase O., A chronological  study of glial fibrillary acidic protein and calbindin-D28k in electrically lesioned rat brain. Neuroscience research, 26 (1996) 271-278.
• Toyoshima T., Yamagami S., Ahmed B. Y., Jin L., Miyamoto O., Itano T., Tokuda M., Matsui H. and Hatase O., Expression of calbindin-D28k by reactive astrocytes in gerbil hippocampus after ischemia. Neuroreport, 7 (1996) 2087-2091.
• Ahmed B. Y. Exercise as a neuroprotective mechanism in Parkinson's disease: Future treatment potential? British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 4:11(2008).
• Ahmed B.Y., Chakravarthy S., Eggers R., Hermens W,T.J.M.C., Zhang J.Y., Nicolu S., Levelett C., Sablitzky F., Anderson P., Lieberman A. R., and Verhaagen J., Efficient delivery of Cre-recombinase to adult mouse brain using adeno-associated and lentiviral vectors, BMC Neuroscience 5 (2004) 4-15
• Samoylova T.I., Ahmed B.Y., Vodyanoy V., Morrison N.E., Samoylova A.M., Globa L.P., Baker H.J., and Cox N.R., Targeting peptides for microglia identified via phage display. J. Neuroimmunology127 (2002) 13-21
• Ahmed B. Y., Yamaguchi F., Tsumura T., Gotoh T., Sugimoto K., Tai Y., Konishi R., Kobayashi R. and Tokuda M., Expression and subcellular localization of multifunctional calmodulin-dependent protein kinases-I, II and –IV are altered in rat hippocampal CA1 neurons after induction of long term potentiation. Neuroscience letters 290 (2000)149-153.
• Chen Y-R., Meyer C., Ahmed B. Y., Yao Z. and Tan T-H., Caspase-mediated cleavage and functional changes of hematopoietic progenitor kinase 1 (HPK1). Oncogene 18 (1999) 7370-7377

Contact details

T: +44 (0)1582 743097
E: bushra.ahmed@beds.ac.uk