Tamer Mohamed

Overview

In the past 12 years my research has focused on investigating novel mechanisms and therapies for cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure in animal models. As a pharmacist I have a special interest in the translation of my findings into human drug therapy for heart disease and I wish to focus my career on contributing to the fascinating and decisive early steps in the long process of drug development.

For more details please see article: European Perspectives in Cardiology, Young Investigator Spotlight (Circulation, Journal of the American Heart Association)

2001-2003 Masters studies in Egypt: Using advanced biochemical and electron microscopic methods I investigated the role of TNF-α inhibition and antioxidants in protection against doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy in rats. My Masters study resulted in 2 publications (Mohamed et al., J Pharm. Pharmacol., 2004 & Mohamed et al., Egy. J. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 2005) which described combination of TNF-α inhibition and antioxidant therapy could protect against the cardiac side effects of this powerful cancer chemotherapy.

2005-2008 PhD studies in Manchester: As a PhD student in the Cardiovascular Medicine research group I continued investigating novel and potentially ‘druggable’ proteins that regulate cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. In 2005, one of the proteins with unknown function in the heart was the plasma membrane calcium ATPase pump isoform 4 (PMCA4) which pumps calcium out of the heart cell, but does not contribute to contraction/relaxation. Therefore, I decided to explore its role using transgenic and knock-out mouse models, and cellular models and was able to describe a novel role for PMCA4 in regulating cardiac contractility indirectly through modulation of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS). This work resulted in three publications in highly recognized journals (Williams et al., JBC 2006, Mohamed et al., JBC 2009 and Oceandy et al., Circulation 2009), and several oral and poster presentations at international cardiovascular conferences. 

2008-2011 Post Doctoral training in Manchester: In my first post-doctoral position I expanded my interest from pure molecular biology to live imaging of subcellular compartments, one of the most fascinating developments in modern heart research. To this end, I trained for several months with Prof. M. Zaccolo at the University of Glasgow and started a collaboration with Prof. Michael I. Kotlikoff (Cornell University, USA). Through these collaborations I have developed new tools to assess the changes in local calcium, cAMP and cGMP to explore the role of PMCA4 in modulating compartmentalized cardiac signalling during cardiac hypertrophy and failure. This is carried out using live cell bio-imaging fluorescence resonance emission transfer (FRET) techniques. I independently transferred this complex technology to Manchester (Bio-imaging Facility, Smith Building). Using these methods I first described a locally confined cAMP, cGMP and calcium space in the vicinity of PMCA4 in myocardial caveolae. My postdoctoral work has been highly recognized. I was awarded one of the three Young Investigator Awards (Basic Science) at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in 2010, the largest cardiology conference in the world. In addition, an extensive interview with me was published in Circulation, the leading international cardiovascular journal (European Perspectives in Cardiology. Circulation. 2010; 122(10):f55-60). Several publications will arise from this work; two have been published (Mohamed et al. Methods Mol Biol. 2010;637: 333-42 and Mohamed et al., JBC 2011).

2012-ongoing: (See Research Section below)

Biography

- Honorary Lecturer. Cardiovascular Research Institute, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester (July 2015 ongoing)

- Research Fellow. J David Gladstone Research Institutes (Cardiovascular), University of California – San Francisco (December 2013 ongoing

• Research Fellow. Cardiovascular Research institute, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester (August 2013 - June 2015)

• Visiting Lecturer. Dept. Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Egypt (August 2008 ongoing)

• Post Doctoral Research Associate. Cardiovascular Research institute, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester (October 2008- July 2013)

• International Research Fellow. University of Gottingen, Germany (April-July 2012) In Prof. Gerd Hasenfuss and Dr. Kaomei Guan’s laboratory for specialised training on human stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells and their differentiation into cardiomyocytes.

• Visitor Research Fellow. European screening port, Hamburg, Germany (August 2011) for specialised training on high throughput drug screening.

• Visitor Research Fellow. Glasgow, UK (June 2007) In Prof. Manuela Zaccolo laboratory for specialised training on compartmentalised imaging of cAMP, cGMP and calcium.

  • PhD student. Cardiovascular Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester (April 2005- May 2008) In Prof. Ludwig Neyses’ lab. Thesis entitled “Identification of the molecular mechanisms by which plasma membrane calcium ATPase isoforms 1 and 4 regulate cardiac signalling”

• Part time teaching assistant. Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester (September 2006 - August 2008)

• Assistant Lecturer. Dept. Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Egypt (April 2003 - April 2005)

• Demonstrator. Dept. Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Egypt (March 2001 - March 2003)

• Pharmacist in military clinics in Egypt. (2000-2001 as a part of obligatory military service).