Title: Brain endothelial Piezo1: Integrating hemodynamic forces to shape neurovascular coupling
Time and place: 16th July at 12.30pm, Department of Pharmacology, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge, Seminar Room at level 2.
Biography: Osama F. Harraz, PhD, (www.HarrazLab.com) is the Bloomfield Professor in Cardiovascular Research and Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Vermont. His laboratory focuses on brain vascular ion channels and signal transduction pathways, with the overarching goal of understanding how cerebral blood flow is regulated in health and how its dysregulation contributes to neurodegeneration and small vessel disease.
Osama obtained his BSc and MSc from Alexandria University, Egypt, and his PhD from the University of Calgary, Canada, under the support of Canada’s most prestigious doctoral award, the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship. His postdoctoral work at UVM led to the discovery of a phospholipid regulator governing calcium and electrical signaling in brain capillaries.
Since founding the Harraz Lab in 2021, Dr.Harraz has established a research program at the intersection of vascular biophysics, mechanobiology, and neuroscience. His group employs patch-clamp electrophysiology, calcium imaging, genetically engineered mouse models, and in vivo two-photon microscopy to interrogate how ion channels in the endothelium shape neurovascular coupling. A central focus of recent work is the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo1, which the lab has identified as a critical integrator of hemodynamic forces and biochemical signals in brain capillaries, with direct consequences for cognition. This research has been published in Nature Communications, PNAS, Circulation Research, and the Annual Review of Physiology. Research in the Harraz lab is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Pew Charitable Trust, the Totman Trust, and the Bloomfield Professorship.
Posted on 09/07/2026
