Dr. Ruaa Al-Qazazi

2019 Mohammed Family PH Research Scholarship 

Department of Medicine & Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queens University

Under the supervision of: Dr. Stephen L. Archer

About Dr. Ruaa Al-Qazazi

Dr. Ruaa Al-Qazazi is currently a second-year master’s student in the Translational Medicine graduate program at Queen's University (Kingston, ON). Dr. Al-Qazazi obtained a Bachelor's degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Baghdad in Iraq in 2009 and was licenced by the Medical Council of Canada in 2014. She is currently studying the role of inflammation in right ventricular dysfunction in PAH (pulmonary arterial hypertension).

Project:

The role of the NLPR3 inflammasome and macrophages in right ventricular failure in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a pulmonary vasculopathy with an increase in right ventricular afterload. The impaired capacity of adapting to the afterload results in the right ventricular failure (RVF). Inflammation is thought to play an essential role in the transition from adaptive to maladaptive RVF. Here, we focus on the NLRP3 inflammasome activation in macrophages as a critical player in this process. We aim to explore the cellular mechanism involved in the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome in macrophages in vitro. We also aim to evaluate the efficacy of two anti-inflammatory/inflammasome inhibitors in preventing inflammasome formation and the releasing of inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1b.