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Murray Edwards College
University of Cambridge
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    Dr Taufiq Rahman

    01223 334068
    Dept of Pharmacology
    Tennis Court Road
    Cambridge
    CB2 1PD

    Fellow in Pharmacology

    Natural Sciences (Biological)

    Fellow

    I feel much privileged and honoured to be a member of this vibrant, cosmopolitan and convivial community thriving within such an airy, bold and welcoming premises. Of many other things, I really admire the College's long standing role in encouraging and supporting promising young women for higher education and personal development.

    Degrees:     

    B.Pharm (DU, Bangladesh)
    M.Pharm (DU, Bangladesh)
    MSc in Molecular Pharmacology (Manchester)
    PhD in Pharmacology (Cantab)

    Awards & Prizes:    

    Commonwealth Scholarship for pursuing MSc in 2003
    Yousef-Jameel Studentship for pursuing PhD in 2005
    Drapers Company Research Fellowship with Pembroke College in 2009
    Early Career Research Award in Signal Transduction by the Biochemical Society in 2011
    University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society in 2012

    Research Interests:    

    I have interests in seemingly diverse themes but with essentially a 'small molecule-centric', chemical biology perspective. My group employs state-of-the art in silico approaches coupled with prospective, complementary wet experiments (calcium imaging, electrophysiology, biochemical and biophysical assays) to know the molecular mechanisms underlying the ligand recognition, ligand modulation, structural variation and evolution of some calcium-permeable ion channels. We are also pursuing rational development of novel chemical probes/modulators of these ion channels. Additionally, we are actively engaged in collaborative research for developing novel chemical scaffolds/leads against some protein targets implicated in microbial infections, cancer, pain and diabetes.

    Biography:    

    My early academic training was in pharmaceutical sciences with a Bachelor and Master of Pharmacy (B.Pharm and M.Pharm) degrees from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. My earlier research interests included ethnopharmacology and chemistry of bioactive natural products (I am still on it, in some ways!). After spending a year in Dhaka as a lecturer of pharmacy, I pursued an MSc in Molecular Pharmacology in the University of Manchester under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship program in 2003. In 2005, I came to Cambridge (as a member of Darwin College) to start a PhD with Professor Colin Taylor at the Department of Pharmacology. During this time, I studied biophysical properties and some regulatory aspects of inositol-1,4,5 trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs), which are a major family of intracellular calcium channels. After finishing PhD in 2008, I continued research in the same lab as a post doc and then in October 2009, I started my first independent position as a Drapers’ Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Since October 2012, I started my own research group as a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the same Department and alongside this, I started a University Lecturership in the Department of Pharmacology in April 2016.

    Selected Publications:

    Selected publications

    1. Rossi AM, Riley AM, Dupont G, Rahman T, Potter BVL & Taylor CW. Quantal Ca2+ release mediated by very few IP3 receptors that rapidly inactivate allows graded responses to IP3. Cell Reports. 2021; 5:109932.
    2. Li Z, King T, Ayong L, Asady B, Cai X, Rahman T, Vella S, Coppens I, Patel S. & Moreno S. A plastid Two-Pore Channel essential for inter-organelle communication and growth of Toxoplasma gondii, Nature Communication 2021; 12(1): 5802.
    3. Bayazeid O, Rahman T. Correlation Analysis of Target Selectivity and Side Effects of FDA-Approved Kinase Inhibitors. ChemistrySelect  2021.
    4. Ghislat G, Rahman T & Ballester PJ. Recent progress on the prospective application of machine learning to structure-based virtual screening. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. 2021;65:28-34.
    5. Hajbabaie R, Harper MT & Rahman T. Establishing an Analogue Based in Silico Pipeline in the Pursuit of Novel Inhibitory Scaffolds against the SARS Coronavirus 2 Papain-Like Protease. Molecules 2021, 26(4), 1134.
    6. Augustin TL, Hajbabaie R, Harper MT & Rahman T . Novel Small Molecule Scaffolds as Candidates Against the SARS Coronavirus 2 Main Protease: a Fragment-Guided In Silico Approach. Molecules 2020, 25(23), 5501.
    7. Greenhalgh JC, Chandran A, Harper MT, Ladds G & Rahman T. Proposed model of the Dictyostelium cAMP receptors bound to cAMP. Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling 2020
    8. Callejo G, Pattison LA, Greenhalgh JC, Chakrabarti S, Andreopoulou E, Hockley JRF, Smith ESJ, Rahman T. In silico screening of GMQ-like compounds reveals guanabenz and sephin1 as new allosteric modulators of acid-sensing ion channel 3. Biochemical Pharmacology  2020, 174:113834
    9. Journigan VB, Feng Z, Rahman S...Van Horn WD, Ferrer-Montiel A, Xie XQ, Rahman T. Structure-based design of novel biphenyl amide antagonists of human Transient Receptor Potential Cation Channel Subfamily M Member 8 channels (TRPM8) with potential implications in the treatment of sensory neuropathies. ACS Chemical Neuroscience 2020, 11(3):268-290.
    10. Chandran A., Chee X, Prole DL., Rahman T. Exploration of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) regulated dynamics of N-terminal domain of IP3 receptor reveals early phase molecular events during receptor activation. Scientific Reports 2019, 9:2454.  
    11. Penny CJ, Vassileva K, Jha A, Yuan Y, Chee X, Yates E, Mazzon M, Kilpatrick BS, Muallem S, Marsh M, Rahman T, Patel S. Mining of Ebola virus entry inhibitors identifies approved drugs as two-pore channel pore blockers. Biochim Biophys Acta Mol Cell Res 2019, 1866(7):1151-1161
    12. Rahman S, Rahman T. Unveiling some FDA-approved drugs as inhibitors of the store-operated Ca2+ entry pathway. Scientific Reports 2017, 7(1):12881

    Book
    Rahmatullah, M.; Jahan, R and Rahman, T.(2016). Compendium of Bangladesh Folk and Tribal Medicinal Plants, Volume-1. A H Development Publishing House, Bangladesh.