Amjad Askary, PhD
Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Amjad Askary is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research team studies the principles of development that create the myriad of cell types in tissue so robustly, and utilizes them to develop new therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disorders. The retina in particular contains more than a hundred neuronal subtypes, organized into three layers of cell bodies and two layers of neuropil, all organized in a specific way to support the overall function of the tissue. To decipher the blueprints guiding retinal and tissue development, the group uses imaging based genetic barcoding for tracing the lineage and molecular history of individual cells, spatial transcriptomics for mapping cell states, computational modeling for interpreting the results, and synthetic biology for developing molecular tools to manipulate cell fate decisions.
@AskaryLab