Contact

Maryam Sharifiaghdam
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ghent University
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 264 8047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8365 (direct)
E-mail: Maryam.SharifiAghdam@UGent.be

Biography

Education

Maryam Sharifiaghdam graduated B.Sc. in 2013 with the highest score from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) (http://en.tums.ac.ir/en)
She received her Master’s Degree in Medical nanotechnology in 2016 at TUMS with a focus on the preparation of nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering. During her master’s, she received the Best project award from the “Fourth National Conference and Tech Market on Health Technology” and the patent award in the Best market-related patents session from the “Iran Nanotechnology Innovation Council”. Also, she was selected as a brilliant talent student from the “Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education”.
In 2016 she earned 1st place in the Ph.D. Entrance Exam of the “Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education”, allowing her to start a Ph.D research project at the medical nanotechnology group under the supervision of Prof. Reza Faridi-Majidi. During her Ph.D. she was selected to have a collaboration in “Codification of startup entrepreneurship training curriculum for university students in medicine fields” (Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education) and she was active as a group leader in the program of student education in the field of a startup, methods of commercialization and marketing in medicine (Iran Nanotechnology Innovation Council)

Her doctoral research is mainly focused on the design of nanocomplexes for gene delivery to macrophage cells in wound healing. A properly regulated inflammatory response is important for efficient healing, not only for preventing infection and clearing necrotic tissue but also for regulating tissue formation and remodeling. In particular, macrophages, the primary effector cells of the innate immune system, have emerged as a major target in regenerative medicine because of their critical roles in regulating all stages of tissue repair through their unique plasticity.
1n 2019 Maryam joined the Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy at Gent University as an Exchange student under supervision of Prof. Kevin Braeckmans and dr. Juan Fraire to study intracellular trafficking of gene delivery nanocomplexes and contributing to ongoing projects on light-triggered drug delivery.

Research interests

The research projects of Maryam are focused on the design and evaluation of gene delivery nanocomplexes and devising nanotechnological strategies to improve delivery efficiency by circumventing or overcoming the endosomal membrane barrier.