Arup was awarded The Goodhope Scholarship for 2018-2019.
Arup Nath is a DPhil candidate in Molecular Neuroscience at the University of Oxford’s Department of Pharmacology. Arup first developed an interest in neuroscience, and in particular Huntington’s Disease, when he was a University of Toronto undergraduate student working in the laboratory of the preeminent Canadian neuroscientist Dr. John Roder at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, which is based at Mount Sinai Hospital. Like his father and grandfather before him, however, Dr. Roder was also one of the many Canadians afflicted with Huntington’s Disease, a progressive neurological disorder. Sadly, Dr. Roder succumbed to this pernicious disease in January 2018.
Prior to attending Oxford University, Arup studied at the University of Toronto where he was awarded a BSc in Cell and Systems Biology and an MSc in Physiology, specialising in Neuroscience. Arup has a keen sense of purpose and, ultimately, his goal is to be involved in research that improves human health. To this end, he has published widely about his research in neuroscience journals including as a first author.
For almost 30 years it has been known that the enkephalinergic neurons of the striatum, which is part of the basal ganglia of the brain, are the first to degenerate in Huntington’s Disease but, to this day, it is not understood what it is about these neurons that makes them so susceptible to degradation. Arup’s research seeks to find out why the striatopallidal circuit is so central to the progression of Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. Arup’s DPhil project uses cutting edge genetic, single-cell sequencing and bioinformatics tools to understand the molecular makeup of these neurons at the single-cell level and how this information can be used to control and modulate these neurons. He has even developed and patented scientific methods and models to support his analysis. Arup’s novel research may hold the key to understanding why these cells are the first to degrade and it may also provide a useful tool to eventually alleviate the effects of Huntington’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, also a long-term degenerative neurological disorder.
In addition to his lab work, Arup is an enthusiastic Eights Rower for the New College Rowing Team and he ran long distance with the University of Oxford Cross Country Team. Arup was born in Bangladesh and raised in the Regent’s Park area of Toronto, where his family still lives. It is Arup’s hope that his DPhil and the research he aspires to undertake as a scientist in Canada will lead to new and more effective therapies for people suffering from Huntington’s and Parkinson’s Diseases.
