University of Gothenburg
University of Gothenburg
  2. About
  3. Find staff
  4. Muhammad Nawaz

Muhammad Nawaz

POSTDOCTOR

Department of Rheumatology a Inflammation
Research
Mail
muhammad.nawaz@gu.se
Visiting address
Medicinaregatan 3, plan 5
41390 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 480
40530 Göteborg

About Muhammad Nawaz

Dr. Nawaz received his first degree in Bachelors of Science (BSc, 2006) in Chemistry and Biology, followed by Master's degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (2009) with specialization in genetics, nucleic acids metabolism, protein chemistry and DNA recombinant biotechnology. In 2011, he completed M.Phil/MS thesis on inherited / congenital diseases with a particular focus on intellectual disability and cognition (neurological disorders) from QAU University, Islamabad. He then moved to Brazil, to peruse PhD at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013-2017) where he investigated the role of microRNAs in malignant progression of brain tumors (gliomas), with an aim to identify potential therapeutic targets and non-invasive biomarkers. He also developed a project to apply liposomes for transporting oligonucleotides (anti-miRs and antagonists: as silencing RNAs) to glioma cells. During his PhD, he joined the University of Gothenburg, Sweden as a one-year PhD exchange in the lab of Hadi Valadi, and then continued as a postdoc in 2017.

Currently, Dr. Nawaz is working with Hadi Valadi on projects funded by "Vinnova" (Swedish government's innovation agency), for developing new methods of RNA drug delivery and tools of stem cell based therapies and organ repairs. RNA therapy provides potential new treatment options in multiple diseases and has been tested in clinical trials of several diseases. RNA-based therapeutics, which function either by silencing pathological genes through delivery of siRNA or expressing therapeutic proteins through the delivery of exogenous mRNA to cells — hold great potential for the treatment of various diseases including cancer, infectious diseases, and various inherited genetic diseases.

He also partly works with "RNA/nucleotide Therapeutics Consortium" established between 3 Universities and different Biotech companies. The Consortium is funded by "Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research".

Previously, in the team of Hadi Valadi, Dr. Nawaz has been involved in collaborative projects in partnership with AstraZeneca for RNA drug delivery (particularly mRNA-based therapy using lipid nanoparticles and nanovesicles). The collaborative work was published in "Nature Communications" journal. Link!

Dr. Nawaz have received few national and international research grants, scholarships, and funding from Brazil and Sweden, and have participated in several national and international conferences and scientific networking.

He also serves as peer reviewer (Publons profile) for web of science (WOS) indexed journals and help publishers and editors in peer review process. Nonprofit, volunteer activities.

According to Dr. Nawaz, he loves to build networking with peers having long sought socio-scientific motives to make an impact on society. He believes that learning is never ending process, and thinks that getting new yet valuable resources might be easy for us but giving back to society might be often hard. One needs to be more open. After consuming that much resource from the society one should be able to reciprocate or pay back to society. It can be done in many forms, and according to him the best form is is knowledge sharing, and sharing the experiences, skill transfer, rendering some free services, especially to those who are in need or those who cannot afford. Knowledge belongs to society, not to individuals.

For the work he has presented, see this link on YouTube

.

Nawaz on Twitter: