Fazel Shabanpoor

A/Prof Fazel Shabanpoor is a principal research fellow and head of the peptides and oligonucleotides therapeutics laboratory at the Florey institute of neuroscience and mental health, and director and chief scientific officer of Centron Bio Pty Ltd. A/Prof Shabanpoor completed his doctoral studies in 2010 (University of Melbourne). In 2012, he received a CJ Martin Fellowship to continue his post-doctoral training in the UK in the field of therapeutic antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) at two of the most world-renowned research institutes, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. In 2014, he returned to Australia and established his own independent laboratory. His research interest spans across the fields of oligonucleotides and peptides with the focus on developing these biomolecules as therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. The main focus of his current research is on development of ASOs targeting several genes (SOD1, C9ORF72, Ataxin-2) as personalised genetic medicine for ALS patients, ASOs targeting alpha-synuclein reduction, androgen receptor and survival motor neuron-2 (SMN2) as potential therapy for Parkinson’s disease, spinal bulbar muscular atrophy and spinal muscular atrophy respectively. In parallel to the development of ASOs, he is also developing Blood-brain barrier-crossing peptides as a platform for systemic CNS delivery of therapeutic ASOs.