Maged M. Harraz, MB,BCh, MS, PhD

Dr. Harraz obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt, and his Masters's degree in Histology and Genetics. Then he received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa School of Medicine in John Engelhardt's laboratory. Dr. Harraz completed postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the laboratories of Ted Dawson, MD, Ph.D., Valina Dawson, Ph.D., and Solomon H. Snyder, MD. His postdoctoral work used multidisciplinary approaches to investigate the role of epigenetics and nitric oxide in cell signaling and its impact on behavior and neurodegeneration. 

The primary focus of the Harraz lab is to elucidate the interplay between protein homeostasis and signal transduction to leverage for drug discovery in neuroscience. We use multidisciplinary approaches to investigate the role of proteostasis in neural cell signaling and its impact on cell and organism biology. Specifically, our research focuses on understanding a novel selective autophagy pathway that targets membrane proteins and elucidating its implications for virus-host interactions, reward behavior, and neurodegeneration.

Addiction, Antidepressant Pharmacology, Autophagy, Dopamine Transporter, Cocaine Receptor, Virus-Host Interaction, SARS-CoV-2

Harraz MM, Malla AP, Semenza ER, Shishikura M, Singh M, Hwang Y, Kang IG, Song YJ, Snowman AM, Cortés P, Karuppagounder SS, Dawson TM, Dawson VL, and Snyder SH. A high affinity cocaine binding site associated with the brain acid soluble protein 1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Apr 19;119(16):e2200545119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2200545119. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Harraz MM, Guha P, Kang IG, Semenza ER, Malla AP, Song YJ, Reilly L, Treisman I, Cortés P, Coggiano MA, Veeravalli V, Rais R, Tanda G, and Snyder SH. Cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation involves autophagic degradation of the dopamine transporter. Mol. Psychiatry. 2021 Jan 7;1025:47–13.

Guha P, Harraz MM, Snyder SH. Cocaine elicits autophagic cytotoxicity via a nitric oxide-GAPDH signaling cascade. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016;2;113(5):1417-22.

Harraz MM, Tyagi R, Cortés P, Snyder SH. Antidepressant action of ketamine via mTOR is mediated by inhibition of nitrergic Rheb degradation. Mol Psychiatry. 2016;21(3):313-9.

Harraz MM, Eacker SM, Wang X, Dawson TM, Dawson VL. MicroRNA-223 is neuroprotective by targeting glutamate receptors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012;109(46):18962-18967.

Harraz MM, Marden JJ, Zhou W, Zhang Y, Williams A, Sharov VS, Nelson K, Luo M, Paulson H, Schöneich C, Engelhardt JF. SOD1 mutations disrupt Redox-sensitive Rac Regulation of NADPH Oxidase in a Familial ALS Model. J Clin Invest 2008;118:659-670.