Webinar on ‘novel vascular actions of statins and their pathophysiological significance’

Statins are the world’s most prescribed class of cholesterol-lowering medications which also possess beneficial vascular effects. According to the conventional view, these beneficial vascular effects are mediated by the inhibition of cholesterol or mevalonate production, a process that requires months to years of treatment. However, whether statins could directly act on a novel molecular target to rapidly modify blood vessel diameter remained unknown. 

As part of our ‘Toolbox for Success’ series’, a webinar on ‘Novel Vascular Actions of Statins and Their Pathophysiological Significance’ was organized for the students of the School of Pharmacy, BRAC University on February 19, 2022, at 7:30 pm (BST). The webinar was held on Zoom and livestreamed on the Department of Pharmacy Facebook page: www.facebook.com/BRACU.Pharmacy for students, alumni and interested participants from other universities and disciplines.

The distinguished speaker of the webinar was Dr. Raquibul Hasan, whose lab recently identified two unconventional targets of statin action in brain and gut arteries that have immense pathophysiological significance. Dr. Raquibul Hasan obtained his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree in 2005 and MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences degree in 2006 from Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh. He joined the Department of Pharmacy, BRAC University as a lecturer in 2010 and later on went on to pursue his doctoral studies in pharmacology at the University of Cambridge in the UK, investigating the molecular modulation of TRP ion channel trafficking in neurons. Following his PhD, Dr. Hasan was awarded an American Heart Association grant in 2016 to study vascular physiology as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tennessee, USA. In 2018, he established his own independent research laboratory as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Mercer University, in Atlanta, USA. Currently, his laboratory is mainly focused on the molecular pharmacology of ion channels and G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to discover new drug molecules and/or repurpose pre-existing drugs to improve vascular dysfunction in cardiovascular disease. Dr. Hasan also teaches different areas of pharmacology to PharmD students and supervises PhD, PharmD and Master’s students, as well as hosts postdoctoral trainees in his lab. He has published his research in top tier journals including PNAS, eLife, JBC, Journal of Neuroscience, IJMS, and Scientific Reports. As a principal investigator, Dr. Hasan has recently been awarded a competitive NIH research grant of $425,000 from NIH’s Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study novel vascular effects of statins in the body.

During the webinar Dr. Hasan shed light on the molecular mechanisms of the novel vascular actions of statins. He described step by step how he formulated his research question and performed cutting-edge experiments to address those using state-of-the-art equipment, eventually arriving at his novel findings. Dr.Hasan gave students a close insight into modern pharmacological research and also encouraged them to pursue research in their higher studies.The attendees asked excellent questions which reflected their enthusiasm towards the topic and were highly appreciated by Dr. Hasan.

The two-hour long webinar was moderated by Ms. Namara Mariam Chowdhury, Lecturer and Program Coordinator of the School of Pharmacy, BRAC University and the overall technical part of the event was taken care of by Mr. Faruque Azam and Ms. Tanisha Momtaz, both Lecturers of the School of Pharmacy.