About me
I am currently a joint Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) international postdoctoral fellow at the Hall Lab at Biozentrum (University of Basel) and the Zubarev Lab at Karolinska Institute. Alumnus of the Gygi Lab at Harvard Medical School.
Research description
My research involves using mass spectrometry-based proteomics to solve problems in target and/or mechanism deconvolution. My current work is focused on mTOR signaling and characterizing the target landscape of cancer cell metabolome to identify druggable targets and metabolic vulnerabilities for therapeutic intervention.
Main publications:
1. Saei AA* et al. 2022. Mapping the GALNT1 substrate landscape with versatile proteomics tools. BioRxiv [co-corresponding author].
2. Nickchi P, Mirzaie M, Baumann M, Saei AA*, Jafari M*. 2022. Monitoring Functional Post-Translational Modifications Using a Data-Driven Proteome Informatic Pipeline Based on PEIMAN2. BioRxiv [co-corresponding author].
3. Ashkarran AA, Gharibi H, Voke E, Landry MP, Saei AA*, Mahmoudi M*. 2022. Measurements of heterogeneity in proteomics analysis of the nanoparticle protein corona across core facilities. Nature Communications. 6610 [co-corresponding author].
4. Ashkarran AA, Gharibi H, Abou Zeki D, Radu I, Khalighinejad F, Keyhanian K, Abrahamsson KK, Ionete C, Saei AA*, Morteza Mahmoudi*. 2022. Multi-Omics Analysis of Magnetically Levitated Plasma Biomolecules. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 114862 [co-corresponding author].
5. Gharibi H, Chernobrovkin A, Eriksson G, Saei AA et al. 2022. Abnormal (Hydroxy)proline Deuterium Content Redefines Hydrogen Chemical Mass. Journal of the American Chemical Society 144, 6, 2484–2487 (covered in Science journal commentary).
6. Sabatier P, Beusch CM, Saei AA et al. 2021. An integrative proteomics method identifies a regulator of translation during stem cell maintenance and differentiation. Nature Communications 12: 6558.
7. Saei AA* at el. 2021. System-wide Identification and prioritization of Enzyme Substrates by Thermal Analysis (SIESTA). Nature Communications 12, 1296 [co-corresponding author; featured in Editor’s highlights on structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics]
8. Saei AA et al. 2020. Comprehensive chemical proteomics in target deconvolution of redox active drug auranofin. Redox Biology 32, 101491.
9. Saei AA et al. 2019. ProTargetMiner: A proteome signature library of anticancer molecules for functional discovery. Nature Communications 10, 5715.
10. Gaetani M§, Sabatier P§, Saei AA§, et al. 2019. Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration (PISA): a high-throughput proteomics assay for target deconvolution. Journal of Proteome Research 18, 11, 4027–4037.
11. Saei AA et al. 2018. Comparative proteomics of dying and surviving cancer cells improves the identification of drug targets and sheds light on cell life/death decisions. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics 17, 6, 1144-1155.
Education
2014 - 2019: Ph.D. in Medical Science with Prof. Roman A. Zubarev from Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute. Thesis: Molecular Mechanisms and Targets of New Anticancer Treatments
2015: Research School for Drug Discovery and Development, SciLifeLab, Sweden
2004 - 2010: Doctorate of Pharmacy from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences
Academic Appointments
2022 - present: Postdoctoral fellow at Michael N. Hall's Lab at Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
2020 - 2022: Postdoctoral fellow at Steven P. Gygi's Lab at Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
2019 - 2020: Postdoctoral fellow at Roman A. Zubarev's Lab at Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Academic honours, awards and prizes
2022-2023: Karolinska Institute Research Foundation Grant (240k SEK)
2021: SLS Stiftelsen Albert Nilssons Forskningsfond Grant (300k SEK)
2020-2023: Swedish Research Council International Postdoctoral Fellowship (3,15M SEK)
2020: Karolinska Institute Research Grant (41k SEK)
2020: Loo and Hans Ostermans Foundation Research Grant (120k SEK)
2019: Thermo Scientific Tandem Mass Tag Gold Award (100k SEK)
2019: CancerFonden Research Grant (co-applicant; 2.4M SEK)