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Abu-Bakr Al-Mehdi, M.D., Ph.D.

Abu-Bakr Al-Mehdi, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor
Pharmacology

Biography

Dr. Abu-Bakr Al-Mehdi, Professor, received his M.D.  and Ph.D. from the Crimea Medical Institute in Simferopol, Ukraine, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Al-Mehdi is Assistant Dean of Assessment & Evaluation in the Division of Medical Education at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine.


Research

Signal Compartmentalization by Source Translocation:  Mitochondria are motile organelles that exhibit perinuclear, periparasitic, and peripheral clustering with a variety of stimuli, such as hypoxia, viral and parasitic infections, oocyte maturation and fertilization.  We postulate that mitochondrial translocation is a response to increased demand for mitochondrial signaling molecules (reactive oxygen species, calcium) in a subcellular region. Currently, we are examining the effect of a variety of stimuli on mitochondrial translocation in endothelial and cancer cells and its dependence on microtubule based motor proteins, kinesin and dynein by multidimensional live-cell fluorescence microscopy.

Vasculogenesis in cancer metastasis: Growth and survival of solid primary and metastatic tumors with radii greater than oxygen-diffusion distance requires formation of blood vessels within tumors. The existing models of tumor vascularization of solid tumors involve sprouting or intussusceptive angiogenesis, co-option of existing vessels, or vasculogenic mimicry. Examining early metastatic lung tumors after tail-vein injection of a syngeneic breast cancer cell line in the nude mice, we have found the presence of endothelial cells in pre-hypoxia size tumors. This observation lays the foundation of a novel vasculogenic model where early incorporation of endothelial cells occurs before the onset of core hypoxia in metastatic lung tumors. We are working on the origins of these endothelial cells.


Publications