Saadman Ahmad

Associated Students Student Travel and Academic Research (STAR) Award, California State University Northridge, 2019

Graduate Studies Travel Award, California State University Northridge, 2019

• Teaching Assistant for BCHM 3114 Biochemistry for Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Spring 2021
• Teaching Assistant for BCHM 2024 Concepts of Biochemistry, Spring 2022

In the Jutras Lab, we focus on a causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. I am specifically interested in the biosynthesis and structure of the unusual peptidoglycan of this bacterium as well as the enzymes involved in its remodeling.

As an undergraduate, I worked under Dr. Daisy Shum at the University of Hong Kong. I synthesized chitosan microspheres onto which I affixed chondroitinase ABC. I used this to degrade chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans that exist at the boundary of astrocytes and Schwann cells.

For my Master’s, I worked under Dr. Daniel Tamae. Our focus on the metabolism of glycolytic cancers; specifically, how we could leverage it to selectively target glycolytic cancers. I studied alternative detoxification pathways that are employed to detoxify reactive carbonyl species that arise as a result of glycolytic activity.

• Ahmad, S., Cordova, B., Gardon, N., Bueno, L., Cambronero, E., Tamae, D. (2018) Inhibition of the Glyoxalase Pathway using S-p-Bromobenzyl Glutathion Cyclopentyl Diester (BBGC) Results in Reduced Cellular Metabolism in Cancer Cells. CSUPERB. Santa Clara, CA.
• Cordova, B., Ahmad, S., Gardon, N., Shuck, S., Reque, L., Chan, L., Matavousian, A., Mason, J., Kenney, S., Anderson, J., Soetyono, L., Termini, J., and Tamae, D. (2019) Investigating the metabolic and biological effects of Glyoxalase 1 inhibition and knockdown in cancer cell lines. ACS National Meeting and Expo. San Diego, CA.
• Ahmad, S., Reque, L., and Tamae, D. (2020) Aldo-keto reductases may be a compensatory detoxification pathway in response to Glyoxalase 1 inhibition in cancer cells. CSUPERB. Santa Clara, CA.