Dr Abdullah Alzaid
Email - abdullah-alzaid@hotmail.com
PhD Project: Molecular regulation of growth & immunity trade-offs in salmonid fishes
(Successful defence of PhD: April 2017)
Postgraduate research
My PhD project was jointly supervised by Prof. Sam Martin and Dr Dan Macqueen. Using a range of salmonid study systems, I investigated potential mechanisms of cross-talk between the growth and immune systems of fish. Broadly speaking, my research focused on how key genes from two master growth-promoting pathways - namely insulin-like growth factor (IGF) and growth hormone (GH) - are regulated under distinct models of immune stimulation and disease challenge.
Publications in Macqueen Lab:
Alzaid A, Kim J-H, Devlin RH, Martin SAM, Macqueen DJ. 2018. Growth hormone transgenesis in coho salmon disrupts muscle immune function impacting cross-talk with growth systems. J. Exp. Biol. 221 pii: jeb173146.
Alzaid A, Martin SAM, Macqueen DJ. 2016. The complete salmonid IGF-IR gene family and its transcriptional response to disease. Sci. Rep. 6: 34806.
Alzaid A, Jouneau L, Wang T, Secombes CJ, Boudinot P, Macqueen DJ, Martin SAM. 2016. Cross-talk between growth and immunity: coupling of the insulin-like growth factor axis to conserved cytokine pathway in rainbow trout. Endocrinology. 157:1942-1955.
Castro R, Jouneau L, Tacchi L, Macqueen DJ, Alzaid A, Secombes CJ, Martin SAM, Boudinot P. 2015a. Disparate developmental patterns of immune responses to bacterial and viral infections in fish. Sci. Rep. 5: 15458.
