Dr Mouna Haidar
PhD
Location
Parkville Campus
30 Royal Parade
Parkville Victoria 3052
Research group
Motor Neurone Disease Group
Biography
Dr Mouna Haidar is a Beryl Bayley MND Australia Research Fellow working in the Motor Neuron Disease Group at The Florey. Dr Haidar completed her PhD in 2018 in the Neuropeptides Laboratory at The Florey Institute where she studied the role of a brain neuropeptide in memory and learning. Dr Haidar joined the Motor Neuron Disease Group in 2017. Her main research goal is to understand the role of cortical hyperexcitability in MND onset and progression. She uses excitatory chemogenetics to model cortical hyperexcitability in mice and has pioneered the first mouse model driven by cortical hyperexcitability recapitulating MND neuropathology and symptoms. She also uses inhibitory chemogenetics to assess the therapeutic potential of instead reducing cortical hyperexcitability in a range of validated human and mouse models of MND.
Career highlights
Awards and achievements
- 2020 – First Place Early Career Research Oral Presentation, Macquarie Neurodegeneration Meeting
- 2019 – 24th Nina Buscombe Travel Award, MND Victoria, $1,600
- 2018 – 23rd Nina Buscombe Travel Award, MND Victoria, $2,500
- 2016 – Miller Postgraduate Travel Award, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, $2,500
- 2015 – Travel Award, International Behavioural Neuroscience Society, $2,500
- 2015 – Poster Prize, International Behavioural Neuroscience Society, British Columbia, Canada
- 2015 – Geoffrey Tregear Travel Award, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, $2,000
- 2015 – Advanced School Travel Award, International Society of Neurochemistry (ISN), $1,300
- 2012 – Golden Key International Society Award for academic achievement (top 15% of student peers), Deakin University, Burwood
