Staff Profile

Mouhamed Alsaqati is a neuropharmacology lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at the Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

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.

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.

I teach MPharm student neuropharmacology modules. I also supervise third and fourth year MPharm dissertation topics that broadly fall within the neuropharmacology and cellular biology remit.

I am contributing to the following modules:

1. PHM1102:

• Carbohydrate, lipids, membrane
• Immune system
• Respiratory System
• Normal Pulmonary Physiology
• Renal System Function and Physiology

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

5.PHM3103:

• Anxiety and insomnia: pathophysiology and pharmacology
• Parkinson's pathophysiology and pharmacology

• Articles

  • Chapman G, Alsaqati M, Lunn S, Singh T, Linden SC, Linden DEJ, van den Bree MBM, Ziller M, Owen MJ, Hall J, Harwood AJ, Syed YA. Using induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate human neuronal phenotypes in 1q21.1 deletion and duplication syndrome. Molecular Psychiatry 2022, 27, 819-830.
  • Alsaqati M, Davis BA, Wood J, Jones MM, Jones L, Westwood A, Petter O, Isles AR, Linden D, Van den Bree M, Owen M, Hall J, Harwood AJ. NRSF/REST lies at the intersection between epigenetic regulation, miRNA-mediated gene control and neurodevelopmental pathways associated with Intellectual disability (ID) and Schizophrenia. Translational Psychiatry 2022, 12(1), 438.
  • Alsaqati M, Heine VM, Harwood AJ. Pharmacological intervention to restore connectivity deficits of neuronal networks derived from ASD patient iPSC with a TSC2 mutation. Molecular Autism 2020, 11, 80.
  • Susruta M, Alsaqati M. Glycyrrhizin blocks the detrimental effects of HMGB1 on cortical neurogenesis after traumatic neuronal injury. Brain Sciences 2020, 10, 760.
  • Nadadhur AG, Alsaqati M. Neuron-glia interactions increase neuronal phenotypes in tuberous sclerosis complex patient iPSC-derived models. Stem Cell Reports 2019, 12(1), 42-56.
  • Alsaqati M, Kidd E. Proteins involved in endocytosis are upregulated by ageing in the normal human brain: implications for the development of Alzheimer's disease. Journals of Gerontology: Series A 2017, 73(3), 289-298.
  • Thomas R, Alsaqati M. Alterations in endocytic protein expression with increasing age in the transgenic APP695 V717I London mouse model of amyloid pathology - implications for Alzheimer's disease. NeuroReport 2017, 28, 963-968.
  • Alsaqati M, Latif ML, Chan SLF, Ralevic V. Novel vasocontractile role of the P2Y₁₄ receptor: characterization of its signalling in porcine isolated pancreatic arteries. British Journal of Pharmacology 2014, 171, 701-713.
  • Alsaqati M, Chan SLF, Ralevic V. Investigation of the functional expression of purine and pyrimidine receptors in porcine isolated pancreatic arteries. Purinergic Signalling 2014, 10, 241-249.

• Authored Book

  • Alsaqati M. Characterisation of the P2Y₁₄ receptor in the pancreas: control of vascular tone and insulin secretion [PhD thesis]. Nottingham: University of Nottingham, 2014.