SALT LAKE CITY, UT, August 07, 2023 - Dr. Zarin Zainul has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of their current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.

Drawing on years of professional experience, Dr. Zainul presently serves as a neuroscientist with Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc., where she utilizes her deep expertise in modeling neurodegenerative diseases (such as Alzheimer's Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Parkinson's Disease) with the aim of identifying novel targets for drug discovery. Dr. Zainul is an expert in generating multiple types of human brain neurons using induced-pluripotent stem cells and though the use of various genetic manipulation techniques, she induces disease states in these neurons to model what naturally occurs in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. Using these diseased neurons, her goal is to unravel biological pathways of neurodegeneration so that drugs can be developed for potential treatments.

Dr. Zainul was born in a very small town of Biswan Sitapur, India and comes from a background with limited resources. After completing her education in Biswan, she moved to Lucknow, India so she could pursue a higher education. She earned her bachelor's degree in Zoology, Botany, and Chemistry from the University of Lucknow and a master's in Biotechnology from Jiwaji University, India. She completed her master's dissertation research from the esteemed Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow. Subsequently, she received a PhD position in Oncology from the prestigious King George's Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow. During that position, she wrote an extensive sole-authored scientific review article on the risks of tobacco smoking on human health, which was published in the journal of Experimental and Clinical Sciences.

Although Dr. Zainul enjoyed her research in Oncology, her true passion was to pursue a career in Neuroscience. After about a year, she resigned from her ongoing PhD in Oncology from KGMU and began to look for PhD programs in neuroscience abroad. It did not take her long to receive a fully funded doctoral position in Neuroscience at the University of Oulu, Finland (Europe). In her doctoral research, she discovered that the Collagen XIII gene is essential for neuromuscular synapse formation and regeneration after neuronal injury in Collagen XIII mutant mice. In humans, Collagen XIII mutation results in congenital myasthenic syndrome type 19 which can be fatal. Her doctoral research significantly contributed to the understanding of Collagen XIII mutation related human neuromuscular disorders. This study was published as "Collagen XIII is required for neuromuscular synapse regeneration and functional recovery following peripheral nerve injury" in the prestigious Journal of Neuroscience where she served as a leading author. She graduated with a doctorate degree in Neuroscience from University of Oulu in 2018.

Being passionate about neuro drug discovery, Dr. Zainul excelled as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida's College of Medicine where she focused on small-molecule drug repurposing approach in neuronal regeneration utilizing peripheral and central nervous system-related injury-induced mouse models. She discovered that the phentolamine drug could improve muscle atrophy symptoms and functional recovery after peripheral nerve trauma in mice. This study was published as "Novel roles of phentolamine in protecting axon myelination, muscle atrophy, and functional recovery following nerve injury" in Scientific Reports and was selected among the top 100 research articles in the field of neuroscience in 2022.

Subsequently, she expanded upon her professional expertise in embryonic stem cell research in neuroscience by receiving a prestigious postdoctoral fellow position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. At the NIH, Dr. Zainul developed expertise in differentiating human embryonic stem cells into multiple types of human neurons (such as motor and sensory neurons) and chromaffin cells to study neurodevelopmental disorders involving these cell types. Her optimized neuronal differentiation protocols using human embryonic stem cells will be submitted for publication where she serves as a leading author.

Because of her vast breadth of knowledge and interest in scientific writing, Dr. Zainul has published several sole-authored scientific review articles in distinct areas in international peer-reviewed scientific journals. She serves as a scientific reviewer for the Journal, Brain Sciences. She also reviews research articles from various journals such as Journals of Personalized Medicine, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Life, Diagnostics and BioMed (MDPI).

Due to her exciting PhD research, Dr. Zainul was selected by the Ulm Graduate School in Germany for a talk on "Crucial Roles of Collagen XIII at the mammalian synapse regeneration and functional recovery following peripheral nerve injury." Dr. Zainul has presented her research at several national and international conferences in several countries. In recognition of her professional achievements, Dr. Zainul earned several travel grants through the Extracellular Matrix Brain Network, Biocentre Oulu, and Ulm Graduate School.

Neurodegenerative diseases are extremely challenging from both a research and drug discovery perspective due to the complexity of the human brain. To date, there is no medicine available that can cure neurodegenerative diseases. While her career has been filled with highlights, Dr. Zainul takes the most pride in the knowledge that her research has potential to improve the lives of patients living with neurodegenerative diseases. Driven by her unwavering passion for drug discovery for the treatments of neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Zainul intends to make further contributions in this field.

Dr. Zainul is deeply thankful to her family for their support especially her mother, Shammi Begum who is an educated woman and advocated for the education of women in her family. In Dr. Zainul's career journey as a woman of color she has overcome several personal and professional life challenges and serves as an inspiration for people who want to make a difference in society.

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