Azadeh Shahsavar
Uncovering the molecular mechanisms of glycine and glutamine transport in health and disease
Azadeh Shahsavar, assistant professor at the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen (UCPH), has received a Fellowship from the Lundbeck Foundation totalling DKK 10 million.
The grant, to be paid out over five years, enables Azadeh Shahsavar to establish her own research group at UCPH, where she and her team will study the structure and function of proteins that transport glycine and glutamine in the brain.
Glycine and glutamine are amino acids that each play key roles in the extremely complex signalling process between nerve cells that takes place in the brain. Dysregulation of their homeostasis is associated with a number of neurological disorders, where glycine and glutamine do not fulfil their roles optimally.
Azadeh Shahsavar, age 38, hopes that expanding our understanding of the proteins which transport glycine and glutamine in the brain can pave the way for the development of new pharmaceuticals to treat neurological disorders and possibly even cancer.
