Dr Ashraf Zaman

Dr Ashraf Zaman is a conjoint lecturer of Medicine and research fellow at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. During his PhD at UNSW, he established the first Australian low-grade brain tumour models. Dr Zaman has been instrumental in a preclinical study that led to the repurposing of an asthma drug for the treatment of terminally ill brain cancer patients. The drug is currently being used in a clinical trial at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

A focus of his current research is understanding the cellular heterogeneity in both adult and paediatric high-grade gliomas, leveraging single-cell and spatial sequencing technologies. Within Professor Joseph Powell's lab at the Garvan Institute, Dr. Zaman has played a crucial role in developing a comprehensive brain cancer cell atlas. This atlas captures data from over 1.2 million cells from approximately 200 brain tumour samples. Using data from this project, he leads the development of patient-derived brain cancer organoids and explants, validating them as reliable models for high-throughput drug screening. Dr Zaman is actively involved in developing national and international alliances for brain cancer research, creating a platform with neurosurgeons, neuro-oncologists, neuropathologists, and researchers to accelerate the discovery and development of enhanced treatment options, ultimately improving the prognosis for brain tumour patients.