An organic chemist by training, Yousef Al-Abed, PhD, discovered that macrophage inhibitory factor (MIF) plays an important role in inflammation and could be a key target in preventing type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases.
 
Dr. Al-Abed developed a potent inhibitor of MIF that has been shown to be effective in preclinical studies of type 1 diabetes and sepsis, and is now designing clinical trials. At present, there are no effective anti-inflammatory medicines approved for type 1 diabetes. The MIF inhibitor, dubbed “ISO-1,” binds to its target and acts as a vaccine-like treatment to prevent type 1 diabetes.
 
Dr. Al-Abed is also working on Alzheimer’s disease as well. He’s discovered a new class of compounds that disrupt amyloid beta assembly and aggregation. Amyloid beta is the sticky protein that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and is thought to damage neurons. One lead inhibitor was tested in the laboratory and it led to the prevention of plaque formation. Currently, they are testing the impact of the amyloid beta inhibitor on cognition in preclinical models.
 
Dr. Al-Abed’s discoveries have also fanned out to other inflammatory proteins that have an important role in human disease. He also studies the alpha-7 nicotinicacetylcholine receptor that plays a regulatory role in the inflammatory response. Dr. Al-Abed and his colleagues have developed several classes of novel nicotinic agonists that suppress the immune system’s release of proinflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein.

Lab Members 

Name:   Kai Fan Cheng, PhD
Position:   Research Scientist
Research:   A synthetic chemist, he works on the development of new treatments for inflammatory conditions.
E-mail:   kcheng2@nshs.edu

Name:   Bayan Al-Jabari
Position:   Research Assistant
Research:   Protein preparation and drug candidate screening.
E-mail:   balajber@nshs.edu