Dr Taufiq Rahman
I feel much privileged and honoured to be a member of this vibrant, cosmopolitan and convivial community thriving within such an airy, bold and welcoming premises. Of many other things, I really admire the College's long standing role in encouraging and supporting promising young women for higher education and personal development
Degrees:
- B.Pharm (DU, Bangladesh)
- M.Pharm (DU, Bangladesh)
- MSc in Molecular Pharmacology (Manchester)
- PhD in Pharmacology (Cantab)
Awards & Prizes:
- Commonwealth Scholarship for pursuing MSc in 2003
- Yousef-Jameel Studentship for pursuing PhD in 2005
- Drapers Company Research Fellowship with Pembroke College in 2009
- Early Career Research Award in Signal Transduction by the Biochemical Society in 2011
- University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society in 2012
Research Interests:
I have interests in seemingly diverse themes but with essentially a 'small molecule-centric', chemical biology perspective. My group employs state-of-the art in silico approaches coupled with prospective, complementary wet experiments (calcium imaging, electrophysiology, biochemical and biophysical assays) to know the molecular mechanisms underlying the ligand recognition, ligand modulation, structural variation and evolution of some calcium-permeable ion channels. We are also pursuing rational development of novel chemical probes/modulators of these ion channels. Additionally, we are actively engaged in collaborative research for developing novel chemical scaffolds/leads against some protein targets implicated in microbial infections, cancer, pain and diabetes.
Biography:
My early academic training was in pharmaceutical sciences with a Bachelor and Master of Pharmacy (B.Pharm and M.Pharm) degrees from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. My earlier research interests included ethnopharmacology and chemistry of bioactive natural products (I am still on it, in some ways!). After spending a year in Dhaka as a lecturer of pharmacy, I pursued an MSc in Molecular Pharmacology in the University of Manchester under the Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship program in 2003. In 2005, I came to Cambridge (as a member of Darwin College) to start a PhD with Professor Colin Taylor at the Department of Pharmacology. During this time, I studied biophysical properties and some regulatory aspects of inositol-1,4,5 trisphosphate receptors (IP3Rs), which are a major family of intracellular calcium channels. After finishing PhD in 2008, I continued research in the same lab as a post doc and then in October 2009, I started my first independent position as a Drapers’ Research Fellow at Pembroke College. Since October 2012, I started my own research group as a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the same Department and alongside this, I started a University Lecturership in the Department of Pharmacology in April 2016.