Azaj Ahmed, PhD

Azaj Ahmed is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa, United States of America. He is currently pursuing postdoctoral research in hematology, with a primary focus on thrombosis as a disease model. His areas of interest include platelet bioenergetics, thrombosis, and signaling mechanisms in hematological disorders.

As part of his ongoing research, he is working on a project titled "Mechanistic insights into platelet bioenergetics and signaling pathways in thrombosis", which aims to understand how risk factors such as aging, viral infections, overweight/obesity, and prediabetes contribute to thrombotic complications using in vivo mouse models and clinical samples.

Azaj has been awarded the American Heart Association (AHA) Postdoctoral Fellowship in support of his research pursuits. Selected publications from his ongoing research includes

1. Azaj Ahmed, Gokul Patil, Vijay K. Sonkar, Melissa Jensen, Jennifer Streeter, and Sanjana Dayal. "Loss of endogenous Nox2-NADPH oxidase does not prevent age-induced platelet activation and arterial thrombosis in mice." Res Pract in Thromb Haemost 8, no. 7 (2024): 102597.

2. Vijay K. Sonkar, Alicia S. Eustes, Azaj Ahmed, Melissa Jensen, Mitali V. Solanki, Jagadish Swamy, Rahul Kumar et al. "Endogenous SOD2 (superoxide dismutase) regulates platelet-dependent thrombin generation and thrombosis during aging." Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 43, no. 1 (2023): 79-91.

3. Rahul Kumar, Vijay K. Sonkar, Jagadish Swamy, Azaj Ahmed, Anjali A. Sharathkumar, Gary L. Pierce, and Sanjana Dayal. "DNase 1 protects from increased thrombin generation and venous thrombosis during aging: cross‐sectional study in mice and humans." Journal of the American Heart Association 11, no. 2 (2022): e021188.