Biomarker for early diagnosis of stroke has been developed by a Pakistani professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

Neuroscience Professor Dr. Kaneez Fatima Shad, the University of Technology Sydney in Australia, has informed to academia that biomarker for the early diagnosis of stroke developed by her group reported by an official of the University of Karachi.

Her lecture was held on ‘Why Brain? Why Advocacy? Setting the future for Neuroscience with peripheral markers of mental disorders in Pakistan’.

Professor Dr. Viqar Sultana, Biochemistry Department, University of Karachi has organized the lecture.

Dr. Fatima Shad did her Ph.D. in 1994, in Neuroscience from the University of New South Wales, Australia and post-doctoral studies from Medical College of Pennsylvania, USA. Her area of research interest is to identify biological markers for brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and stroke.

She holds an experience of more than 30 in different universities of Australia, UAE, USA, Bahrain, Brunei and Pakistan years in teaching physiology, neurophysiology, and other medical sciences along with 56 peer-reviewed papers, edited 3 books and 3 book chapters and 95 international peer-reviewed conference abstracts.

In Pakistan, the common factors for neurological, neuropsychological, and psychiatric disorders are stress, noise and carbon monoxide pollution.

Dr. Fatima during her lecture said that for example generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as a precursor of atherosclerosis leading to ischemic stroke acts as the peripheral markers of such diseases. So, calorie restriction practice as limits of mitochondria to produce less ROS.

She also added that currently, there is no biomarker for the diagnosis of a stroke at an early stage. Specific enzyme serine racemase in the blood can be a peripheral marker to diagnosis neuronal hyper activities and D-serine concentration determines for stroke.

Her group in Australia devised a biochemical method for the early diagnosis of stroke to identify the people prone to a stroke in the future. The patients will be saved from the onset of stroke by early diagnosis.

Number of faculty members and research students from the Faculty of Science, University of Karachi has attended the lecture.