Dr Samira Saadoun is a Senior Lecturer in Neurosciences at the Department of Neurosurgery.
Research
Dr Saadoun has several research interests. In particular she is focused on:
1) Aquaporins: Dr Sadooun has published extensively on aquaporins and their roles in neurological diseases. Aquaporins are water channel proteins. Dr Saadoun has described a novel role for aquaporins in cell migration. She has also described the involvement of aquaporin-4 in spinal cord swelling after injury. She developed the first model of a disease called neuromyelitis optica and showed that antibodies against aquaporin-4, which are found in neuromyelitis optica patients, cause disease.
2) Spinal cord injury: Dr Saadoun has translated her research findings into the clinic. She has developed a technique to monitor spinal cord pressure at the injury site in patients with acute spinal cord injury. Subsequently, she showed that the dura around the damaged spinal cord is largely responsible for generating high spinal cord pressure at the injury site. Her current research focuses on advanced monitoring in spinal cord injury including microdialysis and blood flow. These techniques help clinicians manage patients with spinal cord injury.
Biography
Dr Saadoun was postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Physiology and Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.
She completed undergraduate studies in biology at the University Mohammed V in Rabat in Morocco.
She obtained an MSc in Neurochemistry from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
She was awarded a PhD in neurobiology from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona.
Publications
Recent publications
Werndle MC, Saadoun S, Phang I, Czosnyka M, Varsos GV, Czosnyka ZH, Smielewski P, Jamous A, Bell BA, Zoumprouli A, Papadopoulos MC. Monitoring of spinal cord perfusion pressure in acute spinal cord injury: initial findings of the injured spinal cord pressure evaluation study. Crit Care Med 2014;42:646-55.
Saadoun S, Waters P, Leite MI, Bennett JL, Vincent A, Papadopoulos MC. Neuromyelitis optica IgG causes placental inflammation and fetal death. J Immunol 2013;191:2999-3005.
Saadoun S, Waters P, MacDonald C, Bell BA, Vincent A, Verkman AS, Papadopoulos MC. Neutrophil protease inhibition reduces neuromyelitis optica-immunoglobulin G-induced damage in mouse brain. Ann Neurol 2012;71:323-33.
Tradtrantip L, Zhang H, Saadoun S, Phuan PW, Lam C, Papadopoulos MC, Bennett JL, Verkman AS. Anti-aquaporin-4 monoclonal antibody blocker therapy for neuromyelitis optica. Ann Neurol 2012;71:314-22.
Saadoun S, Waters P, Bell BA, Vincent A, Verkman AS, Papadopoulos MC. Intra-cerebral injection of neuromyelitis optica immunoglobulin G and human complement produces neuromyelitis optica lesions in mice. Brain 2010;133:349-61.
Saadoun S, Bell BA, Verkman AS, Papadopoulos MC. Greatly improved neurological outcome after spinal cord compression injury in AQP4-deficient mice. Brain 2008;131:1087-98.
Key publications
Saadoun S, Papadopoulos MC, Watanabe H, Yan D, Manley GT, Verkman AS. Involvement of aquaporin-4 in astroglial cell migration and glial scar formation. J Cell Sci 2005;118:5691-8.
Saadoun S, Papadopoulos MC, Hara-Chikuma M, Verkman AS. Impairment of angiogenesis and cell migration by targeted aquaporin-1 gene disruption. Nature 2005;434:786-92.
View more details on Dr Saadoun's work on PubMed
View Dr Saadoun's Google Scholar profile
Research group
Suliang Chen, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow
Matthew Gallagher, PhD student
Isaac Phang, PhD student
Collaborations
Internal
Professor Mark Edwards
Dr Leslie Bridges
External
Professor Alan Verkman (University of California San Francisco)
Dr Jeffrey Bennett (Denver)
Professor Angela Vincent (Oxford)
Funding
Wellcome Trust
Guthy Jackson Charitable Foundation
Wings for Life
UK Stem cell Foundation
Teaching
Dr Saadoun supervises research projects of PhD students as well as undergraduate BSc students.
