Dr. Nawab John Dar

Scientist, Salk Institute, California USA

Dr. Dar’s research is currently focused on elucidating the role of Gpx4, membrane lipid peroxidation and subsequent ferroptosis in Alzheimer’s disease. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent oxidative form of cell death where a high level of phospholipid hydroperoxides produced in membranes causes cell injury and ultimate cell demise. Gpx4 is the master regulator of ferroptosis due to its ability to directly reduce membrane phospholipid hydroperoxides. Dr. Dar has recently discovered the role of GPX4 in regulating terminal differentiation in neural stem cells (NSCs) by studying the differentiation potential of 5xFAD (widely used Alzheimer’s disease mouse model) NSCs and NSCs overexpressing GPX4. During his doctoral thesis, Dr. Dar’s focus was to elucidate the neuroprotective potential of small molecules against glutamate/NMDA induced excitotoxicity using different in vitro and in vivo model systems. Soon after his Ph.D., he joined University of Manitoba, Canada as Postdoctoral Fellow where his main focus of research was to decipher the role of secreted amyloid precursor protein alpha (sAPPα) in neurogenesis and investigate if sAPPα induced neurogenesis could help in ameliorating the cognitive deficits in Alzheimer’s disease.