Isaac Ampong, PhD
Spring 2020 – Current
Faculty Lab: Michael Olivier, PhD – Professor, Molecular Medicine
Isaac is a physiologist and clinical biochemist with an interest in the use of metabolomics and computational tools to identify novel metabolites of several chronic diseases including chronic pain, type 2 diabetes, NAFLD, obesity and other metabolic related disorders. He completed a PhD in Biochemistry & Physiology from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom. Prior to starting his doctoral training, he received a master’s degree in Chemical Pathology from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a first class degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology from the University of Cape Coast, all in Ghana. His PhD study focused on the role of diet and gut microbiota in lipid metabolism where he utilized metabolomics, metagenomics, immunohistochemistry and transcriptomics approaches to understand the mechanisms underlying diet associated metabolic disorders under the mentorship of Dr. Helen Griffiths. His current position as a Research Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Olivier at the Center for Precision Medicine is focused on the use of untargeted metabolomics and computational approaches to identify novel chronic pain metabolic signatures, networks and pathways relevant for diagnosis and treatment of pain related disorders. He has received several awards in the past to support his research including the Commonwealth PhD scholarship from the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission, UK.
Mohammad Sharif Khan, PhD
Faculty Lab: Andrew Bishop, PhD – Assistant Professor, Molecular Medicine Laura Cox, PhD – Professor, Molecular Medicine
Mohammad’s primary research interest is to elucidate the function of the small/volatile metabolites in disease and cancer cells in the translational and clinical research. He has expertise on bio-analytical chemistry, multidimensional chromatography, mass spectrometry, metabolomics and omics data analysis. He is working on the application of high-resolution omics techniques for clinical application like VOCs from microbes, breath VOCs to develop disease diagnosis, screening, staging, monitoring, surveillance, prediction or prognosis. Before joining Wake Forest, he worked with Professor Jane Hill at Dartmouth College on the volatile biomarker discovery of the infectious disease, particularly for Tuberculosis (TB). He loves to play and watch cricket in his spare time, and also likes to explore new places and getting involved in outdoor activities.
Kirtikar Shukla, PhD
Postdoc 2017 – current
Faculty Lab; Cristina Furdui, PhD – Professor, Molecular Medicine
Kirtikar was awarded his PhD in Medical Biochemistry in 2013 from the University of Delhi. He was a senior resident at the Mendota – the Medicity Hospital in Gurgaon, India where he focused on Biochemistry – pathology. He worked as a postdoc researcher from 2015 – 2017 at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston focusing on biochemistry and molecular biology. He is presently a postdoc in Dr. Cristina Furdui’s lab at Wake Forest. His major objective is to investigate the therapeutic approach to manipulate redox signaling and modifications in head and neck cancer. He is involved in trying to develop and characterize fluorescent probes to test oxidized interacellular protein.