Dr Abdel Ali Belaidi
PhD

Dr Abdel Ali Belaidi is a Senior Research Fellow at The Florey and his research interests focus around apolipoprotein E and apolipoprotein E receptors and their association with neurodegeneration with a special focus on Alzheimer’s disease.

Abdel completed a licentiate in Biology in Morocco, a diploma in Biology and a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Cologne, Germany. During his PhD and postdoctoral research, Abdel investigated molybdenum and sulphur amino acid metabolism and associated neurodegenerative diseases. His research resulted in significant novel biochemical and clinical findings and has been translated to the development of the first successful therapy of human molybdenum cofactor deficiency type A, which was published in Lancet and recently approved by FDA.

Abdel moved from Germany to Australia and joined The Florey in 2014 after receiving an international Postdoctoral Fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for investigating the link between iron and neurodegenerative diseases and he received further international research funding from the Alzheimer’s Association to investigate apolipoprotein E and apolipoprotein E receptors link to Alzheimer’s disease. His achievements in this area included the identification of apolipoprotein E as a potent inhibitor of a cell death termed ferroptosis, which results from the iron-dependent oxidation of lipids in neurons.

Abdel has a strong interest in investigating cell metabolism and cell death mechanisms implicated in neurodegeneration with particular interest in understanding the cross talk between cysteine, lipid and iron metabolism in determining neuronal susceptibility to cell death.