- About postgraduate study
- Part-time study
- Courses
- Faculties
- UK students
- EU students
- International Students
- How to apply for your course
- Handy Hints
- Open Events
- Student Recruitment
- Money Matters
- About Us
PhD, MSc, FHEA, FIBMS
Principal Lecturer in Biochemistry
Biomedical Science Course Manager
E:bushra.ahmed@beds.ac.uk
Bushra Ahmed is the Principal Lecturer in Biochemistry at the Division of Science, University of Bedfordshire. She is a Fellow of Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), Fellow of Higher Education Academy and a member of Society for Neuroscience.
She has a PhD in neuroscience from Kagawa Medical University, Japan. Her PhD was related to the study of neurodegenerative disorders, learning and memory. After completion of her PhD she moved to the USA for post-doctoral studies and joined Dr Martha Pierson’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Texas followed by Scott-Rotchey Research Center, Auburn University Alabama. Her post-doctoral studies were related to epilepsy, programmed cell death and gene therapy.
On arriving in the UK she joined Dr Patrick Anderson’s lab at the University College London (UCL). There, her project was to determine the role of certain genes involved in axonal regeneration following brain injury using gene therapy technology, she joined the University of Bedfordshire in 2005.
Since 1994, she has been working on in vitro and in vivo models of gene therapy, brain injury, neuronal survival, memory impairment and programmed cell death (apoptosis). Her training and research experiences are in the field of neurosciences, biochemistry, physiology and virology. These fields of research have led to remarkable advances in the understanding of the genetics and molecular pathogenesis of many diseases. Such studies offer great potential for therapy for many diseases affecting the central nervous system including Parkinson’s disease.
Her research interests include gene therapy, brain injury, neuronal survival, memory impairment and programmed cell death (apoptosis). Currently, her lab is investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neuro-degenerative disorders including Parkinson disease.
Dr. Ahmed’s future research interests are primarily focused in three areas. The first area of interest is centred on the conditional inactivation of genes using Cre recombinase system and gene therapy technology. Inactivating genes in vivo is an important technique for establishing their function in the adult nervous system. Unfortunately, conventional knockout mice suffer from several limitations including embryonic or perinatal lethality and the compensatory regulation of other genes. One approach to producing conditional inactivation of genes involves the use of Cre recombinase system in which the gene under investigation is bracketed by loxP recognition sites and activated by focal delivery of an enzyme (Cre recombinase).
The second area of her research interest is to understand the role of RNA binding protein (s) in regulation of cytoskeletal genes in rat brain and in embryonic cortical cultured cells under both normal and RNA binding protein’s over expressed conditions utilizing viral vectors to transfer the gene to non-dividing cells. The stability of mRNA, its transport, localization and translation in the cytoplasm is an essential mechanism for regulation of gene expression. RNA binding proteins play an important role in developmental control of several neural gene expressions.
The third area of Dr. Ahmed’s research interest is related to stem cell research, which offers great potential to treat neurodegenerative disorders. She is highly interested in investigating the effect of drugs and environmental factors on neuronal functions. .
