Shamchal Bakavayev
PhD
Location
Bethesda, MD, United States
Current Organization
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH NINDS
Biography
| Dr. Shamchal Bakavayev is a researcher focused on developing scalable genomic and imaging technologies to study the molecular mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. His work integrates CRISPR-based genome engineering, stem cell models, high-content microscopy, and computational analysis to investigate how disease-associated genetic variants alter cellular function in human neural cells. Dr. Bakavayev earned his PhD in Physiology and Cellular Biology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, where he investigated the structural and pathogenic properties of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His doctoral research identified disease-associated misfolded SOD1 epitopes and explored antibody-based therapeutic strategies aimed at reducing neurotoxicity and slowing disease progression. Dr. Bakavayev is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Ward at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), where he develops pooled CRISPR based prime- and base-editing platforms to study endogenous protein localization and function in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived central nervous system cell types. His research seeks to uncover how Alzheimer’s disease-associated genetic variants disrupt cellular pathways and protein localization, with the long-term goal of accelerating the discovery of therapeutic targets for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. |