Nizar Y. Saad, PhD

Dr. Saad’s research interests are in understanding the pathobiology of inherited neuromuscular disorders, and in the discovery of circulating exosome-based biomarkers and the development of viral (Adeno-Associated Virus) and non-viral (Exosomes) based gene therapies towards these disorders and other rare genetic diseases (Laminopathies).

Publications

Nizar Y. Saad, PhD, is a research assistant professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, and a principal investigator at the Jerry R. Mendell Center for Gene Therapy at the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Saad is an experienced RNA biologist and gene therapy specialist. Dr. Saad also serves on the New Investigator Committee, the Musculo-Skeletal Gene & Cell Therapy Committee and the Oligonucleotide and RNAi Therapeutics Committee of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT).

Dr. Saad earned his doctorate degree in life sciences (biochemistry and molecular biology) from the University of Strasbourg. Dr. Saad then completed two consecutive postdoctoral training, in the lab of Tina Henkin, PhD, at The Ohio State University, where he investigated bacterial T-box riboswitch-based regulation of gene expression, and in the lab of Scott Harper, PhD, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he developed gene and drug-based therapies for Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD) by inducing the expression of a natural DUX4-targerting miRNA.