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I received my Bachelors degree in Pharmacy from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia in July 2003, briefly worked in a pharmaceutical factory and then joined the College of Health Sciences in Mekelle University in August 2004. I did my masters degree in Experimental Pharmacology and Regulatory Toxicology in the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in India. My masters thesis was on screening of antimalarial effect of macrolide antibiotics in rodent models of the disease. I went back to Ethiopia and served as Lecturer of pharmacology until January 2012, when I started my PhD in the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
My PhD research focused on brain energy metabolism in epilepsy. I, in collaboration with others, employed the Lithium-pilocarpine post-status epilepticus temporal lobe epilepsy in rats and mice as a model and studied energy metabolism and mitochondrial function using 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This is an ex-vivo methodology in which 13C labeled metabolites (glucose, acetate) are administered and 15-20 minutes later animals sacrificed and the amount of and percent enrichment with 13C of amino acids and intermediates of the tricarboxylic acid cycle in brain tissues determined. This gives a cross sectional snapshot of metabolic processes and the metabolic interplay between neurons and astrocytes. I explored the effect epileptic state and pharmacological interventions have on brain energy metabolism. Up on my return to Ethiopia in September 2015, I have been serving Mekelle University as Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and have been engaged in providing lectures and guiding postgraduate students.
I am very excited now to join the PharmaTox group. My role will be working towards elucidation of molecular mechanisms in neurodevelopmental toxicity of pharmaceuticals commonly used by pregnant women, which were found to have associations to behavioral effects in children in the MoBa cohort. I will primarily be using the developing chick embryo as a model with the hope that a better understanding of the mechanisms will lead to better ways of preventing behavioral abnormalities in children.
I look forward to starting the work and god jul og godt nytt år!