Paul R. Kasher

Paul Kasher is a lecturer based within the Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology at the University of Manchester, UK. He completed his PhD in 2009, where he studied axonal transport mechanisms in a novel mouse model of hereditary spastic paraplegia at the University of Sheffield, UK. Following his PhD, Paul performed a two year post-doc position at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands where he generated and characterised zebrafish larval models of pontocerebellar hypoplasia. In 2011, he returned to the UK to start a second post-doc position at the University of Manchester. During this time, he studied the genetics of a spectrum of disorders associated with cerebrovascular and neuroinflammatory phenotypes which led him to develop a novel zebrafish larval model of a rare inherited form of juvenile-onset intracerebral haemorrhage. This work allowed him to collaborate closely with the Manchester Stroke Research group to focus on establishing the use of zebrafish larvae as an alternative approach for studying the cellular consequences of haemorrhagic stroke. In 2017, he was awarded a Stroke Association HRH The Princess Margaret Lectureship Award which has allowed him to establish his own research group as Principal Investigator. His current research program encompasses the use of zebrafish larval models to study neuroinflammation and cell death mechanisms as a consequence of blood in the brain, as well as small molecule drug screening and genetic profiling to identify novel drug candidates.