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Staff Profile

Dr Mouhamed Alsaqati

Lecturer in Neuropharmacology

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 2082342
  • Address: School of Pharmacy
    Faculty of Medical Sciences
    Newcastle University
    King George VI Building
    NE1 7RU
Background

Mouhamed Alsaqati is a neuropharmacology lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at the Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He is MPharm Stage 3 lead.

He obtained his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Nottingham. He has been working as a senior research associate in the Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation Institute at Cardiff University in academic partnerships with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.


 


Research

I am interested in learning the molecular mechanism underlying the in the pathogenesis of various brain disorders including neuropsychiatric, neurodegenerative and pain disorders. I use patient derived pluripotent stem cells and differentiate them into neural linage cells. Then the functional phenotype of these cells can be tested using a number of functional assays including patch-clamping and the multi-electrode arrays (MEAs), which is a platform that tests the neuronal excitability, synchronicity and connectivity. I use the combination of genetics, cellular and electrophysiological components to understand the mechanism underlying the neuropsychiatric disorders. Following identifying the molecular mechanism of the disorders, I employ my pharmacological and genetic (CRISPR) tools to rescue their aberrant phenotypes.

My research can serve as a fundamental translational platform for patients with neurological disorders as drugs used to rescue the atypical functional phenotype in human neuronal cellular models can be applied in human or animal brains of relevant diseases to correct their aberrant behaviours.


PhD supervision:

 

·    Primary Supervisor for a student studying pain in Parkinson’s disease using iPSC-derived sensory neurons.

·   Primary Supervisor for a student investigating the phenotypes of GABAergic neurons in Parkinson’s disease patients.

. Primary Supervisor for a student investigating the phenotypic effects of TSC mutations in chronic pain.

·     Secondary Supervisor for a student examining the role of TANC2 in autism using iPSC-derived neurons.

·    External Secondary Supervisor for a student studying perturbations in the process of endocytosis in FADS2 mutant cells, in collaboration with Cardiff University.


 

Teaching

I am contributing to the following modules for MPharm:

1.PHM1102:

  • Carbohydrate, lipids, membrane
  • Immune system
  • Respiratory System
  • Normal Pulmonary Physiology
  • Renal System Function and Physiology
  • Principles of Cellular Physiology: Extracellular Receptor Cellular Signalling Pathways

2.PHM2101:

  •  Physiology and Pharmacology of Inflammation & Autoimmunity

3.PHM2102:

  • Large intestine, Constipation, Diarrhoea and Lactose Intolerance
  • Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics

4.PHM2103

  • Pathophysiology and pharmacology of asthma and COPD
  • Respiratory Tract Infection

5.PHM3103:

  • Anxiety and insomnia: pathophysiology and pharmacology
  • Parkinson's pathophysiology and pharmacology
  • Depression and antidepressants
  • Pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis

6.PHM3104:

 

  • Glucose and glucagon & Diabetes pathogenies

 

7. PHM4106

 

  • The immune system
  • Vaccines

 

I also contribute to the following Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course:

1.BDS1.NB.11 and Neuroscience MRes

 

·        Peripheral nervous system and Sensory Receptors

·        Acute and chronic pain mechanisms

. Neuroscience MRes: Manipulating neuronal function

Publications