MD ABDUR RAZZAQUE, PH.D.
Keynote Speaker
Assistant Professor, LSU Health New Orleans
Dr. Razzaque majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and received a B.S. degree in 1994 and an M.Sc degree in 1996. He had been awarded Japan govt. scholarship for pursuing MS and Ph.D. in Japan. He earned MS in 2002 and Ph.D. in 2005 in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Hyogo, Japan. For his postdoctoral studies, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Rumiko Matsuoka in the International Research and Educational Institute for Integrated Medical Sciences (IREIIMS), Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Tokyo, Japan. There, he identified gain-of-function mutations in RAF1 (which encodes the serine-threonine kinase RAF1) are associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in Noonan syndrome, an autosomal dominant disorder. Then he became interested in modeling these mutations in animal models so that he could begin to approach the mechanistic bases for development of the ensuing pathologies, in vivo, in the context of the intact organ and whole animal. In 2010, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Jeffery Robbins at the Heart institute, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, to learn mice genetics. In a collaborative study, he also identified RAF1 mutations in pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy. In 2014, he joined as a scientist in the department of surgery, university of Wisconsin where he studied the mechanism if heart failure by using cardiac fibroblast isolated from human failing and MI rat hearts. In 2017, he joined the faculty of the Louisiana State University, New Orleans as assistant professor in the Department of Surgery. His research uses a combination of mice and human genetics to define mechanisms of congenital heart diseases, cardiomyopathy and heart failure.