Seminar Abstract: Brain injury, including traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a major public health concern worldwide, characterized by devastating primary and secondary injury cascades that exacerbate tissue damage and neurological deficits. The pathological features of TBI include a primary injury caused by external force to the brain, and without timely intervention, a secondary injury activates a range of toxic underlying mechanisms, such as chronic neuroinflammation, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, and apoptosis, which are thought to worsen TBI outcomes. The lack of effective TBI therapy underscores the poor understanding of secondary injury-induced biochemical changes that increase tissue damage and contribute to behavioural deficits after TBI. Modeling appropriate in vitro and in vivo conditions that recapitulate damage-induced brain injury reflective of the human condition is critical for screening neuroprotective compounds. Here, we explore some neuroprotective screening models in vitro and in vivo to identify potential therapeutic compounds in search of effective strategies for the treatment of brain injur

Biosketch: Amar Abdullah is a neuroscientist by training and has served as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biological Sciences, School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University since January 2022. Dr. Amar's research interests lie in neuroinflammation and neural injury, with a focus on screening for neuroprotective compounds using in vitro and in vivo models of brain injury. He was awarded the Melbourne International Research Scholarship (MIRS) and the Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarship (MIRFS) from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he completed his Ph.D. in 2019 under the guidance of Prof. Peter J. Crack and Dr. Juliet M. Taylor in the Neuropharmacology lab. Dr. Amar was the first to discover a role for the protein STING in modulating the outcome of traumatic brain injury, and his work has been published in high-impact journals. He was awarded the prestigious Brain Foundation Research Gift in 2019 by the Brain Foundation Australia, recognising his contributions to research excellence. He actively seeks research collaborations with industry partners and also plays a key role in leading early career researchers at Sunway University, supporting their career growth and development.