Ismail Ahmed
Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology
E-mail: Ismail.Ahmed@neuro.utah.edu
Education
- B.S. in Biochemistry, 2011, The City College of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
- Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Physics, 2012, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
- Postdoctoral Fellow, 2012–present, New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, New York, NY
Research:
Dr. Ahmed's research focuses on the intersection of chemical biology and neuroscience, particularly in understanding how neuropeptide signaling modulates behavior and physiology in both health and disease contexts.
He is developing novel chemical and molecular tools to track and manipulate neuropeptides in real-time. By combining these tools with traditional pharmacological and behavioral analyses, he aims to elucidate how neuropeptides influence neural computations and drive complex maternal and social behaviors.
Selected Publications:
- Hilaire MR*, Ahmed IA*, Lin CW, Jo H, DeGrado WF, Gai F. "Blue fluorescent amino acid for biological spectroscopy and microscopy." Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jun 6;114(23):6005-6009.
- Ahmed IA, Gai F. "Simple method to introduce an ester infrared probe into proteins." Protein Sci. 2017 Feb;26(2):375-381.
- Zhang K*, Ahmed IA*, Kratochvil HT, DeGrado WF, Gai F, Jo H. "Synthesis and application of the blue fluorescent amino acid l-4-cyanotryptophan to assess peptide-membrane interactions." Chem Commun (Camb). 2019 Apr 25;55(35):5095-5098.
Note: Co-first authors are indicated by an asterisk ().
Dr. Ahmed is generously funded by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awards at the Scientific Interface (CASI) and Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program (PDEP) awards.