Columbus / Ohio / United States
I have always had a great passion for the brain as a fascinating organ of billions of synapses, which has humbled scientists for centuries. It was when my grandmother died of advanced Alzheimers disease that I knew I wanted to dedicate my career to understanding this disease that hit so close to home. I spent most of my childhood years between my home country Jordan and the United States. I completed medical school training at the University of Jordan, graduating at the top of my class, and was the first student to graduate from the university with a 4.0 GPA. I then moved to the U.S. in 2005, where I completed my neurology residency and a combined clinical and post-doctoral training in cognitive neurology and memory disorders (with special emphasis on Alzheimers disease) at Washington University in St. Louis. During my time at Washington University, I worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. David Holtzman and a clinical fellow with Dr. John Morris. Our work resulted in the identification of two proteins as novel markers of neuronal and synaptic injury in Alzheimers disease. We were able to show that these proteins improve our ability to detect Alzheimers disease in the brain years prior to the onset of clinical symptoms, which will improve early diagnosis and allow better identification of individuals who would benefit from disease-modifying treatments. Prior to joining The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, I was involved in the evaluation and management of patients with memory and cognitive disorders, as well as the design and conduction of clinical trials for new Alzheimers disease therapies. My current research focuses on the use of bioinformatics and genomics to identify new protein and gene targets for disease-modifying treatments in Alzheimers disease and frontotemporal dementia. I am the primary investigator of several clinical and translational studies in Alzheimers disease and frontotemporal dementia. I also enjoy
