Journal of Tumour Research & Reports

Dr. Ruman Rahman

Dr. Ruman Rahman
Assistant Professor, Molecular Neuro-Oncology, School of Medicine
The University of Nottingham, United Kingdom

Biography

After graduating with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Edinburgh, I completed a PhD in Molecular Biology at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh under the supervision of Sir Ian Wilmut in 2007. I joined Professor Richard Grundy’s laboratory at the Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre (CBTRC), University of Nottingham (UoN) as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in 2007, where my research identified Nucleolin as a prognostic marker in paediatric ependymoma (Neuro-Oncology (2008) 10: 675-689) and revealed the susceptibility of high grade paediatric brain tumour cells to histone deacetylase inhibitor therapy (Molecular Cancer Therapeutics (2010) 9: 2568-2581). I received the prestigious Nottingham Advanced Research Fellowship for the Faculty of Medicine in 2011 (success rate 5%), allowing me to initiate two complementary independent research programmes – biomaterial-based local drug delivery and 3D brain tumour culture. I am currently the British Neuro-Oncology Society Young Investigator of the Year, the highest United Kingdom accolade for a researcher under the age of 35. http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/pressoffice/2014/07/09/national-award-for-innovative-nottingham-researcher/ To realise the potential of localised drug delivery as an adjuvant neurosurgical approach, I have assembled a diverse collaborative network of specialists including tissue engineers, neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists and radiation physicists. We are developing a biodegradable biomaterial system, originally designed for use in bone tissue engineering, to deliver chemotherapy agents directly at the site of brain tumours. The biomaterial can be moulded to the shape of the surgical resection cavity, can withstand high radiotherapy doses and is capable of releasing several drugs simultaneously into the brain parenchyma. The approach thereby potentially targets residual tumour cells. Upon publication of this work as senior author (PLoS One 8(10) (2013): e77435) and a subsequent press release by the UoN, there has been national and international media interest highlighted by TV coverage on BBC News and my participation on a live BBC Radio interview on the same day (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2013/november/biomaterial-delivered-chemotherapy-could-provide-final-blow-to-brain-tumours-.aspx). A patent application emerging from intellectual property generated from this study is currently being filed. I have also led independent research to develop novel in vitro/ex vivo 3D brain tumour models using the Rotary Cell Culture System™ originally developed by NASA to simulate micro-gravity. We have used this model to recapitulate brain tumour heterogeneity (Oncotarget Advance Online June 2015; PLoS One 7(12) (2012): e52335) and are now developing strategies to characterise intra-tumour protein heterogeneity using advanced mass spectrometry imaging. Candidate therapeutic targets identified by this approach are anticipated to be delivered locally using our drug delivery system. I was appointed as a tenured Assistant Professor at the UoN’s new School of Medicine in October 2013 and continue to lead research programmes in localised drug delivery and 3D tumour modelling/molecular heterogeneity. To date I have published 18 primary research and review articles (6 as senior author and 8 as primary author) and since 2010, have been awarded £2.11m in grant funding as either Principal or Co-investigator. My publications have collectively been cited 221 times and my current h-index is 7. I have disseminated my recent research through invited oral presentations at the leading international (SNO, Fort Lauderdale 2013 and New Orleans 2011; ISPNO Toronto 2012) and national conferences (BNOS, Liverpool 2014, Durham 2013; Cambridge 2011) for brain tumour research.

Research Interest

Brain intratumour heterogeneity; 3D brain tumour models for drug screening; local biomaterial-based drug delivery systems for intracranial tumours; brain tumour stem cells; HDAC inhibitors; telomerase.