Abdul Qadir Syed, PhD, is a molecular biologist with extensive experience in stem cell biology, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), cancer biology and disease modeling.
In his role at the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI), he is involved in many collaborative research projects that include generation of iPSC lines from human fibroblasts and peripheral blood mononuclear cells and differentiation of these iPSC lines into various cell types such as β-cell-like cells, Schwann cells and many other cell lineages for use in translational studies. He also will use CRISPR/Cas9-based technology to genetically-modify healthy and patient-derived iPSC lines to create disease model systems.
Prior to arriving at the IBRI, he served as a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), where he developed iPSC-derived human vascularized lung organoids for lung disease modeling and injury mechanism. He generated a 3D lung organoid platform by co-culturing of differentiated epithelial, endothelial and immune cells from iPSC line.
Prior to his work at UIC, he was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Marcus Peter's lab at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. There, he investigated mechanism of CD95/Fas (death receptor) and interferon mediated cancer stem cell formation. During this project he used CRISPR-based technology to generate multiple KO in different human and mouse cancer cell lines to uncover this mechanism.
Syed also worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the school of dentistry at Seoul National University, South Korea. Syed received his PhD from the department of molecular genetics, Seoul National University, South Korea in 2013, where he investigated the role of microRNA in mesenchymal stem cell fate determination specially for osteogenesis, myogenesis and adipogenesis.
He has published and contributed to multiple papers in peer-reviewed international journals. For a full list of Syed's published research, click here.