Research scientist Salah-uddin Ahmed is looking forward to joining the faculty of the College of Pharmacy this spring for many reasons.
“It is an outstanding opportunity to collaborate with clinical researchers and healthcare providers as our research focus is disease oriented and aimed at discovering novel therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases,” Ahmed said.
His primary research interest is in testing the efficiency of the active compound in green tea for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis tend to develop cardiovascular complications, and Ahmed’s research team also is focused on that complication and studies a specific category of small proteins – cytokines – and the cells that are activated in response to them.
“The success of these studies may lead to a significant advancement in the development of green tea’s active compound or other structurally related molecules as potential treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis and possibly other autoimmune diseases,” Ahmed said.
He is currently an assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Prior to his current position, he held appointments in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
He has a Ph.D. in nutrition/chemoprevention from Jamia Hamdard University in New Delhi, India. His bachelor’s degree is in biology and chemistry and he has a master’s degree in toxicology.
Ahmed was successfully recruited to the College of Pharmacy with funding support from the Health Sciences and Services Authority of Spokane County.
“The WSU College of Pharmacy has an excellent environment and facilities for translational research, which is the core of our research area in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics,” Ahmed said. “It is an ideal place to work with medicinal chemists for drug discovery and development.”
Ahmed’s research is currently funded by the grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Arthritis Foundation, and Roche/Genetech. His lab team will be moving with him and consists of a graduate student, a research associate and postdoctoral fellows.