Dr. Ayman Al Haj Zen received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Paris VII, where he studied the role of small proteoglycans in the regulation of vascular repair and atherosclerosis. Before joining the University of Oxford in 2010, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at London Research Institute and the University of Bristol, investigating the role of cell-cell communication signaling in vascular development and regeneration. In Oxford, he was awarded an intermediate research fellowship from the British Heart Foundation (Oxford) Centre of Research Excellence in 2013 to establish his independent research program on therapeutic angiogenesis. Dr. Al Haj Zen joined the HBKU as an Assistant Professor on April 2019.
Dr. Al Haj Zen’s research is focused on the identification of new therapeutic targets and strategies to promote functional neovascularisation and reverse the microvasculature instability in chronic vascular diseases such as peripheral arterial disease, non-healing chronic wounds, and vascular dementia. The development of such vasoactive therapeutics would be an appealing restorative intervention to manage these disorders. He uses in vitro angiogenesis assays combined with high content (quantitative) imaging approaches to conduct medium to high throughput screens of small molecule, siRNA and miRNA libraries. Using this phenotype-driven approach, Tazarotene, third generation Retinoic Acid agonist, was identified to trigger neovascularisation and wound regeneration after injury. Besides, Dr. Al Haj Zen has an active interest to understand the role of paracrine signalling occurred between the newly growing microvascular network and the surrounding microenvironment using 2D/3D co-culture and organ-on-chip models. Going forward this approach will increase the potential of identification of new targets and strategies to be therapeutically translated for treating chronic vascular diseases.
College of Health and Life Sciences; Hamad Bin Khalifa University
2019 - presentDivision of Cardiovascular Medicine (Radcliffe Department of Medicine); University of Oxford
2013 - 2019Division of Cardiovascular Medicine (Radcliffe Department of Medicine); University of Oxford
2010 - 2013Bristol Heart Institute; University of Bristol
2008 - 2010London Research Institute; Cancer Research UK
2006 - 2008University Denis Diderot (Paris VII), Paris/France
2006University Denis Diderot (Paris VII), Paris/France
2001University Denis Diderot (Paris VII), Paris/France
2000University of Aleppo; Aleppo/Syria
1998Retinoid agonist for promoting angiogenesis and wound healing; Methods in Molecular Biology; 2019 (in press)
2019Phenotypic miRNA Screen Identifies miR-26b to Promote the Growth and Survival of Endothelial Cells; Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids; 2018 Aug 18,13:29-43.
2018The retinoid agonist Tazarotene promotes angiogenesis and wound healing; Molecular Therapy; 2016 Oct,24(10):1745-1759.
2016Comprehensive characterization of the Published Kinase Inhibitor Set; Nature Biotechnology; 2016 Jan,34(1):95-103.
2016DLK1: a novel negative regulator of angiogenesis?; Cardiovascular Research; 2012 Feb 1,93(2):213-4.
2012Inhibition of delta-like-4-mediated signaling impairs reparative angiogenesis after ischemia; Circulation Research; 2010 Jul 23,107(2):283-93
2010Human adult vena saphena contains perivascular progenitor cells endowed with clonogenic and proangiogenic potential; Circulation; 2010 Apr 20,121(15):1735-45.
2010Notch signalling in ischaemia-induced angiogenesis; Biochemical Society Transactions; 2009 Dec,37 (Pt 6):1221-7.
2009Syndromic and non-syndromic aneurysms of the human ascending aorta share activation of the Smad2 pathway; Journal of Pathology; 2009 May,218(1):131-42.
2009Decorin overexpression reduces atherosclerosis development in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice; Atherosclerosis; 2006 Jul,187(1):31-9.
2006Adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of superoxide dismutase and catalase decreases restenosis after balloon angioplasty; Journal of Vascular Research; 2005 May, 42(3):255-65
2005Effect of adenovirus-mediated overexpression of decorin on metalloproteinases, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases and cytokines secretion by human gingival fibroblasts; Matrix Biology; 2003 May,22(3):251-8.
2003