Shalina Ousman

Dr. Shalina Ousman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary.

Dr. Ousman completed her BSc (Honours) in Biology (1989-1993) and a Master’s of Science degree in Physiology (1993-1995) with Dr. Mark A. Bisby, at Queen’s University, Ontario. She then moved on to complete her PhD in Neurosciences at McGill University under the mentorship of Dr. Samuel David (1995-2001). Following this, Dr. Ousman completed two post-doctoral fellowships, the first with Dr. Iain L. Campbell at the Scripps Research Institute in the Department of Neuropharmacology (2001-2004), and the second with Dr. Lawrence Steinman at Stanford University (2004-2008). She returned to Canada in 2007, and chose to join us in Calgary not only for the world-class MS Program, but also for the collaborative spirit among the other MS, Neuroscience, and Immunology researchers.

Dr. Ousman’s research centres around MS, with the goal to identify and mobilize endogenous protective responses in MS that antagonize the damaging events and/or mediate the repair process. She and her team are presently investigating the mechanism(s) underlying the potential therapeutic action of a small heat protein, alphaB-crystallin (alphaBC). She previously showed that alphaBC significantly decreased clinical symptoms in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of MS. Her lab is now investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effect of alphaBC, as well as assessing the translational capabilities of this molecule in normal and MS immune cells.

Dr. Ousman has published eight peer-reviewed articles, three book chapters and reviews, and 26 abstracts. She also has one pending patent and three invention disclosures. In addition to funding from a number of agencies throughout her academic career, Dr. Ousman has also been the recipient of several awards, the most recent being an AHFMR Scholar Salary and Establishment Grant (2009), a CIHR operating grant (2009) and a Donald Paty Career Development Award, Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada (2009).

Updated: 2009-09-22