Dr Ashraf Zaman

Dr Ashraf Zaman is a conjoint lecturer of Medicine and research fellow at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. During his PhD at UNSW, he established the first Australian low-grade brain tumour models. Dr Zaman has been instrumental in a preclinical study that led to the repurposing of an asthma drug for the treatment of terminally ill brain cancer patients. The drug is currently being used in a clinical trial at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School. Dr Zaman is currently co-leading the ‘’ultimate weapon against brain cancer’’ project in Australia, funded by Charlie Teo Foundation. His team in Professor Joseph Powell's lab has developed the world’s largest single-cell transcriptomic dataset across major brain tumour types. The datasets are currently being used for high-throughput drug screening.  His current research focuses on transcriptomic profiling across multiple brain tumour types at single-cell resolution, spatial transcriptomics, patient-derived in-vitro (2D, organoid and bioprinting)  and in-vivo model development, drug screening and evidence-based personalised medicine.