Khalid F. Salamat

Currently I am working as Core Scientist (Research Fellow) in the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh UK. My current research focuses on subclinical prion infection in sheep infected orally or by clinically relevant route (blood transfusion) using a highly sensitive in vitro amplification assay, and validation of potential bio-markers in blood from archived blood samples of sheep infected with BSE. After graduation in Veterinary Sciences, I obtained my M.Sc. (Hons.) degree in Microbiology and then I came to France for higher studies. My doctoral research was focused on the propagation of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE or prion diseases that are also genetic and hereditary diseases as well) in immortalized Rov epithelial and mouse neuronal cell lines. My PhD work involved the use of several techniques of genetic engineering, molecular biology, physiological chemistry, immunology and other fields. This work led to the publication of my work in some renowned journals. Previously I worked as post-doctoral fellow in the Institute of Biochemistry and Cellular Genetics (IBGC, UMR 5095), a sister institute of famous French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in southern France city of Bordeaux, in the team “Non-self recognition in fungi », led by a renowned genetician Dr Sven J. Saupe. The research focused on the in vitro elaboration of the ability of NWD2 (a STAND signal transduction protein) to template the HET-S ([Het-s] is the prion of filamentous fungi Podospora anserine) prion forming domain transconformation. My other task also involved characterisation of different putative prions from other fungi as found by sequence alignments in our recent publication in PLoS one (Daskalov et al. 2012). During my career, I had several chances to present my work at national and international conferences, seminars and workshops.