Mahmoud Salama Ahmed

I have joined the department of pharmaceutical sciences at Texas Tech University Health Sciences (TTUHSC) as an assistant professor to establish my independent research program focusing on tackling molecular targets affiliated with cardiac regeneration under stress and neuropathic pain.
My research training throughout my bachelor, PhD, and postdoc / visiting has mainly focused on the area of the structure-based drug discovery towards design, synthesis, X-ray crystallography, and biological evaluation of new chemical entities as potential drug candidates targeting different clinical problems. Throughout my PhD at South Dakota State University (SDSU), I had the opportunity to execute different stages in the drug discovery process. My project mainly focused on design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of active analogs originated from Cucurbitacin triterpenoid natural products skeleton targeting the treatment of melanoma. I have spent a year in the industry at Kemin Industries, Iowa; where I translated my organic chemistry experience towards process optimization towards development of lutein, zeaxanthin, and other carotenoids.
In 2018, I joined the internal medicine department at UT southwestern medical center as a research instructor to recruit the drug discovery tools to tackle different clinical indications including neuropathic pain and heart regeneration. This resulted in peer reviewed publications in Nature, Nature metabolism, PNAS, Nature cardiovascular, and European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.