Farooq Syed, MSC, PhD

Dr. Farooq Syed earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Pathophysiology and Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Pisa, Italy. During his doctoral studies, he conducted research on the role of nanomedicine in protecting and transplanting human pancreatic islets for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Syed pursued postdoctoral training at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM). His postdoctoral research at IUSM primarily focused on identifying early biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the detection and prevention of stress-induced damage to pancreatic β cells during the development of type 1 diabetes. This research was generously supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Dr. Syed has received recognition for his contributions to type 1 diabetes research. He was honored with the Young Investigator Award for Type 1 Diabetes Research from JDRF-nPOD, and in 2022, he received a prestigious Career Development Award from JDRF. In addition, he was a recipient of the American Diabetes Association Young Investigator Award in 2023.

1. Syed F, Singhal D, Raedschelders K, Krishnan P, Bone RN, McLaughlin MR, Van Eyk JE, Mirmira RG, Yang ML, Mamula MJ, Wu H, Liu X, Evans-Molina C. A discovery-based proteomics approach identifies protein disulfide isomerase (PDIA1) as a biomarker of β-cell stress in type 1 diabetes. eBioMedicine. 2023; 87:104379. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104379.

2. Kusmartseva I*, Wu W*, Syed F*, Verena Van Der Heide, Jorgensen M, Joseph P, Tang X, Candelario- Jalil E, Yang C, Nick H, Harbert JL, Posgai A, Lloyd R, Cechin S, Pugliese A, Campbell-Thompson M, Richard S. Vander Heide, Evans-Molina C, Homann D, Atkinson MA. ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Expression in the Normal and COVID-19 Pancreas. Cell Metabolism.2020; 32(6):1041-1051. *Co-first authors

3. Nakayasu ES*, Syed F*, Tersey SA, Gritsenko MA, Mitchell HD, Chan CY, Dirice E, Turatsinze JV, Cui Y, Kulkarni RN, Eizirik DL, Qian WJ, Webb-Robertson BM, Evans-Molina C, Mirmira RG, Metz TO. Comprehensive proteomics analysis of stressed human islets identifies GDF15 as a target for type 1 diabetes intervention. Cell Metabolism. 2020 ;31(2):363-374. * Co-first authors.

4. Syed F, Tersey SA, Turatsinze JV, et al. Circulating unmethylated CHTOP and INS DNA fragments provide evidence of possible islet cell death in youth with obesity and diabetes. Clin Epigenetics. 2020;12(1):116. doi:10.1186/s13148-020-00906-5.