Dr. Zainul utilizes her extensive expertise in modeling neurodegenerative diseases in the lab by using human pluripotent stem cell-derived brain neurons to find drugs for neurodegenerative diseases.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT, August 07, 2023 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Dr. Zarin Zainul has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of their current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Drawing on years of professional experience, Dr. Zainul presently serves as a neuroscientist with Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc., where Dr. Zainul utilizes her extensive expertise in modeling neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease) in the lab by using human pluripotent stem cell-derived brain neurons to find drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Zainul is an expert in generating multiple types of human brain neurons using induced-pluripotent stem cells and though the use of various genetic manipulation techniques, she induces disease states in these neurons to model what naturally occurs in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. Using these diseased neurons, her goal is to unravel biological pathways of neurodegeneration so that drugs can be developed for potential treatments.
Dr. Zainul was born in the very small town of Biswan Sitapur, India and comes from a background with limited resources. After completing her primary education in Biswan, she moved to Lucknow, India so she could pursue a higher education. She earned her bachelor's degree in Zoology, Botany, and Chemistry from the University of Lucknow and a master's degree in Biotechnology from Jiwaji University, India. She completed her master's dissertation research from the esteemed Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow. Subsequently, she received a PhD position in Oncology from the prestigious King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow. During that position, she wrote an extensive sole-authored scientific review article on the risks of tobacco smoking on human health, which was published in the journal of Experimental and Clinical Sciences. Although Dr. Zainul enjoyed her research in oncology, her true passion was to pursue a career in Neuroscience. After about a year, she resigned from her ongoing PhD in Oncology at KGMU and began to look for PhD programs in neuroscience abroad. It did not take her long to receive a fully funded doctoral position in Neuroscience at the University of Oulu, Finland (Europe).
In her doctoral research in Finland, she focused on modeling the phenotype and symptoms of human neuromuscular junction disorders with specific focus on the gene, Collagen XIII using transgenic mouse models. She made a novel discovery that Collagen XIII gene is essential for muscle, neuronal and neuromuscular synapse regeneration after neuronal in mice. In humans, Collagen XIII mutation results in congenital myasthenic syndrome type 19 which can be fatal. Her doctoral research significantly contributed to the understanding of Collagen XIII mutation related human neuromuscular disorders. This study was published as "Collagen XIII is required for neuromuscular synapse regeneration and functional recovery following peripheral nerve injury" in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience where she served as a leading author. She graduated with her doctorate degree in Neuroscience from University of Oulu in 2018.
Being passionate about neuro drug discovery, Dr. Zainul excelled as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida's College of Medicine where she focused on repurposing small-molecule drugs that could potentially be used for treating human neuronal injuries. To model and recapitulate human neuronal injury scenarios in lab, she performed neuronal injuries in mice and tested small-molecule drugs that are used to treat other known human conditions. She discovered that the phentolamine drug (clinically prescribed for hypertension) could improve muscle atrophy symptoms and poor functional recovery that was caused by mouse neuronal injury. This study was published as "Novel roles of phentolamine in protecting axon myelination, muscle atrophy, and functional recovery following nerve injury" in Scientific Reports and was selected among the top 100 research articles in the field of neuroscience in 2022.
Subsequently, she expanded upon her professional expertise in using embryonic stem cell in neurodevelopmental research by receiving a prestigious postdoctoral fellow position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. At the NIH, Dr. Zainul gained expertise in differentiating human embryonic stem cells into 3D organoids including human sensory and motor neurons and chromaffin cells to model and study human neurodevelopmental disorders involving these cell types. Her optimized protocols on differentiating human embryonic stem cell into multiple neuronal and other cell types will be submitted for publication where she serves as a leading author.
Because of her vast breadth of knowledge and interest in scientific writing, Dr. Zainul has published several sole-authored scientific review articles in distinct areas in international peer-reviewed scientific journals specializing in distinct areas of science. She currently serves as a scientific reviewer for the Journal, Brain Sciences. She also reviews research articles from various journals such as Journals of Personalized Medicine, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Life, Journal of Diagnostics and BioMed (MDPI).
Due to her exciting PhD research, Dr. Zainul was selected by the Ulm Graduate School in Germany for a talk on "Crucial Roles of Collagen XIII at the mammalian synapse regeneration and functional recovery following peripheral nerve injury." Dr. Zainul has presented her research at national and international conferences in several countries. In recognition of her professional achievements, Dr. Zainul earned several travel grants through the Extracellular Matrix Brain Network, Biocentre Oulu, and Ulm Graduate School.
Neurodegenerative diseases are extremely challenging from both a research and drug discovery perspective due to the complexity of the human brain. To date, there are no medicine available that can cure neurodegenerative diseases. While her career has been filled with highlights, Dr. Zainul takes the most pride in knowing that her research has potential to improve the lives of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Driven by her unwavering passion for drug discovery for the treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Zainul intends to make further contributions to neurodegenerative research and treatments.
Dr. Zainul is deeply thankful to her family for their support, especially her mother, Shammi Begum who is an educated woman and advocated for the education of women in her family. In Dr. Zainul's career journey as a woman of color she has overcome several personal and professional life challenges and serves as an inspiration for people who want to make a difference in society.
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