Arun Iyer, a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) funded early career investigator and assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, was awarded $120,000 in total funding from Wayne State's Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and WSU Applebaum administered over two years to bring on a postdoctoral fellow through a competitive selection process for WSU faculty members.

Iyer's incoming fellow, Mohd Ahmar Rauf, earned his PhD degree from Aligarh Muslim University in India with an emphasis on nanotechnology-based cancer and infectious diseases targeting. Prior to joining Iyer's lab, Rauf was a postdoctoral fellow at Henan Macquarie University in China. He has published 26 research articles and two book chapters, and served as a book co-editor for Springer publications.

Rauf will assist with Iyer's research on the synthesis and evaluation of nanoconstructs for the transport of therapeutics across the blood brain barrier (BBB).

Rauf will assume the postdoctoral research position in Iyer's group, attending meetings, collecting data, assisting with data analyses and contributing to the new research direction leading to publications in high impact journals. This will initiate new lines of funded research and facilitate the submission of follow-up grants to federal agencies such as the NIH and DoD.

Iyer is looking forward to serving as Rauf's mentor, and fostering his relationships with Wayne State faculty researchers in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

"Rauf's career development at Wayne State will be multidimensional," said Iyer. "This grant provides me with the opportunity to support and train a future scientist and translational researcher in nano-immunotherapuetics using novel in vitro and in vivo animal models. The study outcomes will cater to the development of next generation of nanomedicines that can efficiently transport therapeutics across the blood brain barrier (BBB). The delivery of therapeutics to the brain is considered a high thrust area for treating life-threatening conditions including neurodegenerative diseases and cancers, needing immediate attention."