Göteborgs universitet
Göteborgs universitet
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  4. Muhammad Nawaz

Muhammad Nawaz

Forskare

Avd för reumatologi och
inflammationsforskning
E-post
muhammad.nawaz@gu.se
Besöksadress
Guldhedsgatan 10A
413 46 Göteborg
Postadress
Box 480
405 30 Göteborg

Om Muhammad Nawaz

Dr. Nawaz received his first diploma in Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology (BSc, 2006), and 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). He obtained PhD degree from 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. Along with his supervisor he also wrote a project to apply liposomes for transporting oligonucleotides (anti-miRs as silencing RNAs) to glioma cells, which was approved and funded by Brazilian health ministry - National Support Program for Oncology Care (PRONON).

During PhD, he wrote an independent project for PhD exchange to go abroad and joined Hadi Valadi lab at the University of Gothenburg, where he worked on exosomes' role in cell-to-cell communication. The project was funded by CAPSES - Brazilian funding agency. After completing PhD degree in 2017, Dr. Nawaz then continued as a postdoc.

During his postdoc at Valadi Lab Dr. Nawaz was involved in collaborative projects with AstraZeneca for developing RNA drug delivery systems (particularly mRNA-based therapy using lipid nanoparticles and exosomes). The recent collaborative works were published in top tire journals: ''Advanced Science'', and "Nature Communications" with following links here and here.

Currently, Dr. Nawaz is working as Forskare (Senior Researcher) at the Valadi Lab, with projects funded by "Vinnova" (Swedish Government's Agency for Innovation Systems), for developing new methods of RNA drug delivery and tools of stem cell-based therapies and organ repairs. He also works with "RNA/nucleotide Therapeutics Consortium - FormulaEx" established between Universities and different Biotech companies in Sweden. The Consortium is funded by "Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research-SSF". 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. RNA therapy provides potential new treatment options in multiple diseases and has been tested in clinical trials of several diseases, and lately applied in COVID-19 RNA vaccines.

He has received national and international research and travel grants, scholarships from Brazil and Sweden, and have participated in several national and international conferences. He also serves as peer reviewer (Publons profile) for web of science (WOS) indexed journals and help publishers and editors in peer review process.

According to Dr. Nawaz, one should be able to reciprocate or pay back to the society. It can be done in many forms, and according to him the best form is knowledge sharing, transferring the skills, offering some free services, especially to those who cannot afford or lack resources. Knowledge belongs to society, not to individuals.

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

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Nawaz on Twitter:

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Selected publications:

1. Lipid Nanoparticles Deliver the Therapeutic VEGFA mRNA In Vitro and In Vivo and Transform Extracellular Vesicles for Their Functional Extensions (Advanced Science, 2023).

Muhammad Nawaz, Sepideh Heydarkhan‐Hagvall, Benyapa Tangruksa, Hernán González‐King Garibotti, Yujia Jing, Marco Maugeri, Franziska Kohl, Leif Hultin, Azadeh Reyahi, Alessandro Camponeschi, Bengt Kull, Jonas Christoffersson, Ola Grimsholm, Karin Jennbacken, Martina Sundqvist, John Wiseman, Abdel Wahad Bidar, Lennart Lindfors, Jane Synnergren, Hadi Valadi.

2. Linkage between endosomal escape of LNP-mRNA and loading into EVs for transport to other cells (Nature Communications, 2019).

Marco Maugeri, Muhammad Nawaz, Alexandros Papadimitriou, Annelie Angerfors, Alessandro Camponeschi, Manli Na, Mikko Hölttä, Pia Skantze, Svante Johansson, Martina Sundqvist, Johnny Lindquist, Tomas Kjellman, Inga-Lill Mårtensson, Tao Jin, Per Sunnerhagen, Sofia Östman, Lennart Lindfors, Hadi Valadi.

3. The emerging role of extracellular vesicles as biomarkers for urogenital cancers (Nature Reviews Urology, 2014)

Muhammad Nawaz, Giovanni Camussi, Hadi Valadi, Irina Nazarenko, Karin Ekström, Xiaoqin Wang, Simona Principe, Neelam Shah, Naeem M Ashraf, Farah Fatima, Luciano Neder, Thomas Kislinger.

4. Extracellular vesicles: evolving factors in stem cell biology (Stem Cells International, 2016).

Muhammad Nawaz, Farah Fatima, Krishna C Vallabhaneni, Patrice Penfornis, Hadi Valadi, Karin Ekström, Sharad Kholia, Jason D Whitt, Joseph D Fernandes, Radhika Pochampally, Jeremy A Squire, Giovanni Camussi.

5. Long distance metabolic regulation through adipose-derived circulating exosomal miRNAs: a trail for RNA-based therapies? (Frontiers in physiology, 2017).

Farah Fatima, Muhammad Nawaz

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Full list of Publications (Google Scholar)

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=csyTpp0AAAAJ&hl=en

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