Muhammad Zaman
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Muhammad Zaman is the principal investigator of the Laboratory for Molecular & Cellular Dynamics at Boston University and a faculty fellow of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago and was a Hermann and Margaret Sokol Foundation Fellow post-doctoral fellow in cancer research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been a recipient of FEBS Outstanding Young Investigator Award and was most recently awarded Regents Teaching Award, the highest teaching award across the entire University of Texas System of Institutions. Professor Zaman joined BU from University of Texas Austin in fall 2009.
Research in Zaman lab is divided into two main thrusts, namely global health and cancer.
In the global health arena, our interests are focused in improving health systems through understanding of disease determinants, development of better diagnostics and helping local stakeholder implement evidence based policy. Current work focuses on antimicrobial resistance, OneHealth integrated solutions, improved testing of drug quality and improved diagnostics for maternal health. Our work in the lab works closely with work in the field and in the policy domain for rich understanding and efficient implementation. Recent work has also focused on access to better health for refugees and marginalized populations and the role engineers can play in improving the health of the most vulnerable people. Our students come from not just engineering but also public health, social sciences and humanities to collectively address some of the most pressing global problems in access to health and health equity.
We also have a vibrant multi-disciplinary undergraduate educational program that focuses on experiential learning, partnership, field work in Africa and technology development for high impact diseases in low income countries.
The second thrust of our lab is our long standing interest in fundamental questions in tumor metastasis, including cell migration and cell-matrix interactions. We use and develop an array of experimental and computational strategies rooted in cell biology, chemistry, mechanics and imaging to understand how cells process external information and use it to develop specific responses in native like 3D environments. Our work is also aimed at developing multi-scale models, integrating both first principle and data driven approaches to quantify cell signaling, adhesion and motion in 3D environments.