Dr Mohammed Shaaban is a structural biologist who uses cryo-electron microscopy to study two pillars of cell biology: actin dynamics and protein degradation. He earned his MSc at Stony Brook University, USA, as a Fulbright Scholar, and his PhD at Imperial College London and the Francis Crick Institute, UK. His research is published in top-tier scientific journals such as Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Molecular Cell, and Nature Communications.
His research revealed the first high-resolution structure of the activated Arp2/3 complex—an advance in actin dynamics which is important in contexts such as cancer metastasis, wound healing, and immune-cell navigation. The work earned MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 (MENA) recognition and provided a definitive structural starting point for modelling how cells change shape and move.
Alongside research, Dr Shaaban writes across Arabic platforms, authoring 300+ articles that bring evidence-based science to the Arabic-speaking world. He also contributes to Nature Careers (Nature, a leading global science journal), addressing structural inequalities facing researchers from the Global South and advocating practical steps toward more equitable, collaborative science.