The fellowship supports early-career researchers to spend up to three months at an international host institution, promoting collaboration and technical exchange in extracellular vesicle (EV) biology.
Supervised by Dr Naveed Akbar and Dr Christopher Toepfer, Waleed’s research investigates how mutations that cause hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) alter the cargo and signalling of EVs released by induced pluripotent stem cell–derived cardiomyocytes. His work aims to uncover how these vesicles contribute to fibrosis, immune activation, and tissue remodelling in HCM.
As part of the fellowship, Waleed will join Dr Malene Møller Jørgensen at Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark, to apply EV Array technology for biomarker validation. This collaboration marks the translational phase of his research, moving from molecular discovery toward preclinical diagnostic evaluation.
The project will also strengthen links between Oxford and Aalborg in EV-based cardiac research analysis and advance efforts to better understand EV-mediated communication in heart disease.