About me
I am currently a joint Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) international postdoctoral fellow at the Gygi Lab at Harvard Medical School and the Zubarev Lab at Karolinska Institutet.
Research description
My research involves using mass spectrometry-based proteomics to solve problems in target and/or mechanism deconvolution in drug discovery. My current work is focused on characterizing the target landscape of colon cancer stem cell metabolome to identify druggable targets and metabolic vulnerabilities for therapeutic intervention.
Main publications:
1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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]
4. Saei AA et al. 2020. Comprehensive chemical proteomics in target deconvolution of redox active drug auranofin. Redox Biology 32, 101491.
5. Saei AA et al. 2019. ProTargetMiner: A proteome signature library of anticancer molecules for functional discovery. Nature Communications 10, 5715.
6. Gaetani M§, Sabatier P§, Saei AA§, Beusch CM, Yang Z, Lundström SL, Zubarev R. 2019. Proteome Integral Solubility Alteration (PISA): a high-throughput proteomics assay for target deconvolution. Journal of Proteome Research 18, 11, 4027–4037.
7. 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 Institutet. Thesis: Molecular Mechanisms and Targets of New Anticancer Treatments
2004 - 2010: Doctorate of Pharmacy from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences
Academic Appointments
2020 - present: Postdoctoral fellow at the Gygi Lab at Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
2019 - 2020: Postdoctoral fellow at Zubarev Lab at Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Academic honours, awards and prizes
2020: Swedish Research Council International Postdoctoral Grant
2019: Thermo Scientific Tandem Mass Tag Gold Award