Ahmed Osman

I received my undergraduate degree in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, and specialized in pathology. I was performing histopathological analyses, and necropsies, along with teaching and research. 

In my master's years, my research focused on infectious diseases, developing molecular assays for characterization of the genotypes of the parasitic disease Hydatidosis caused by tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus.

For my PhD, I was enrolled in a Regenerative Neuroscience Program at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, investigating the role of neural stem cells in brain repair after injuries caused by ischemia or cranial irradiation. Since brain injury is often accompanied by inflammation, my research then focused on how the immune response influences neural stem cell behavior, with a particular focus on microglia as the resident immune cell in the brain.

Over time, I developed an interest in investigating central nervous system cancers, especially cancer dissemination, known as cancer metastasis. Therefore, I joined the Adrienne Boire Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, USA, for postdoctoral training, investigating the molecular underpinnings of leptomeningeal metastasis response to craniospinal irradiation.

Our research focuses on two lines:

 1- Investigation of the molecular determinants of the central nervous metastasis growth in pediatric patients, from both the brain or systemic origins. We aim to precisely dissect the molecular programs and cellular interactions within the metastatic ecosystem based on the cancer type using animal models and ex vivo systems. We also investigate metastatic microenvironments after cancer therapies, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy to understand the molecular basis of the metastatic relapse and resistance to the current available therapies, with the overall goal to identify novel molecular targets and actionably exploit them to halt the disease progression.

2- Understanding the molecular basis of the neurotoxicity and neurocognitive impairments induced by brain cancers and cancer therapies. Cancer therapy-induced neurotoxicity is a major clinical challenge in neuro-oncology as it can occur in up to 95% of cancer survivors treated with cranial irradiation or chemotherapy, especially in children, with no available treatment.