Dr Fazel Shabanpoor
PhD

Dr Fazel Shabanpoor is a Research Fellow at The Florey. He is a medicinal biochemist with expertise in peptide and oligonucleotide drug development. In 2011, following the completion of his PhD, he received a CJ. Martin Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and moved to the UK to continue his post-doctoral training at two of the world’s most renowned research institutes, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford.

During his time in the UK, he focused on the development of therapeutic peptides and antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Since his return to Melbourne, he has established an antisense drug development platform at The Florey.

The focus of Dr Shabanpoor’s current research is:

• Development of antisense targeting several genes (SOD1, C9ORF72, Ataxin-2) as personalised genetic medicine for ALS patients
• Development of peptides to clear toxic protein aggregates from motor neurons as potential therapy for MND
• Development of a peptide-based drug delivery platform to deliver therapeutic ASOs into the brain and spinal cord