Associate Professor Fazel Shabanpoor
PhD
Group Head
Location
Parkville Campus
30 Royal Parade
Parkville Victoria 3052
Research group
Peptide and Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Group
Biography
Associate Professor 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 postdoctoral 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 Associate Professor Shabanpoor’s current research is development of:
• antisense targeting several genes (SOD1, C9ORF72, Ataxin-2) as personalised genetic medicine for ALS patients
• peptides to clear toxic protein aggregates from motor neurons as potential therapy for MND
• a peptide-based drug delivery platform to deliver therapeutic ASOs into the brain and spinal cord.
Career highlights
Research projects
- Peptide-assisted systemic delivery of therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides in a spinal muscular atrophy model
- Development of antisense oligonucleotides as a potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease
- Developing BBB-permeable ASO to target ataxin-2 and mitigate TDP-43 proteinopathies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis therapy
- Development of peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates to target poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase for new RNA-based amyotrophic lateral sclerosis therapy
- Developing SMN gene therapy for SMA and MND
