Plans & Prospects 2023

How it started
I was an undergraduate at the University
of Mosul, as a clinical pharmacist. I was
fascinated by the idea of developing a
drug. When I was a patient after a road
traffic accident, I saw first-hand the lack
of treatment options for people coming
into A&E with traumatic brain injuries
and oedema, which is the swelling of
the brain. There was one drug being
developed about 70 years ago, but
patients treated with it developed
resistance within 24-48 hours. So I knew
I wanted to work in this space, and for
a while. Returning to Sheffield Hallam
University for a Masters in Pharmacology
and Biotechnology, followed by a PhD in
Cell Biology and Neuroscience, I joined
a team of brilliant people who were all
biochemists, and I found I was always
the one trying to take it from the bench
to the patient. So I decided I wanted to
apply my research. I now focus on central
nervous system disorders, in particular
neurodegeneration such as Parkinson’s
disease and Alzheimer’s using cuttingedge
technologies including developing
humanised 3D models of brain-on-achip,
patient-derived stem cells and gene
editing tools such as CRISPR.
A Global Citizen
A Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson and Group Leader in Cellular Neuroscience,
Mootaz Salman has travelled around the world in the name of research, but has never
forgotten the experience which inspired it all, when he found himself in a hospital bed.
PhD MSc BPharm MRSB
Below: Mootaz after his PhD viva with his supervisors and examiners at Sheffield Hallam
University
22
I feel privileged because my journey
in this field started from the ward
itself, and now I’m on the molecular
and cellular side but the thing I find
important is staying connected to the
human impact of our work. It’s especially
important that our junior scientists keep
this in mind, as they are the ones really
making most of the breakthroughs.
They need to see that they’re not just
dealing with cells, but that the cells
come from people and those people
have families. Giving the current rate of
disease progression, one in two people
will get dementia after the age of 80.
The aggregate societal cost of this is £3.3
billion per year in the UK, with a total
annual economic burden of £20,000 per
household. As the population ages, this
number will increase year-on-year.
We arrange open days and invite
patients to join our research group
for tours to show them that there
are people dedicating time and effort,
spending nights and weekends working
to find cures. I want to give them hope,
but a real one, so that even when they
feel things are slow, they can know
things are happening behind the scenes.
It’s an ongoing process. It’s a journey.
It’s tremendous if you think about how
far we’ve come as a species in the last