Mootaz M. Salman

Dr Mootaz Salman is a Group Leader in Cellular Neuroscience and an MRC Career Development Fellow in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG) at the University of Oxford. He is a Principal Investigator at the Oxford British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre for Research Excellence and the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI), with additional appointments at the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery. He is also a Governing Body Fellow and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.  

Dr Salman moved to the University of Oxford in 2020, where he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship that enabled him to establish his independent research programme as a Departmental Research Lecturer. In 2022, he launched his research group at DPAG, which is primarily supported by his MRC Career Development Fellowship and further funded through competitive awards including a BBSRC Pioneer Award, CONNECT–Horizon 2020, ERC-related funding, a Chief Scientist Office Research Grant, and Royal Society support. He is also a named recipient of, and currently leads research under, the newly established BHF/UK DRI Principal Investigator Award.  

His research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of blood–brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and brain injury, with particular emphasis on endothelial metabolism, neuroimmune interactions, and vascular contributions to dementia. His group combines patient-derived stem cell technologies, genetic engineering, and advanced mechanobiological approaches to design and build innovative dynamic 3D multicellular human BBB and brain-on-a-chip models that accurately recapitulate human disease-relevant conditions, including neuroinflammation and vascular stress.  

Dr Salman is internationally recognised for his contributions to neuroscience and vascular biology. His accolades include the International Society of Neurochemistry (ISN) and APSN Young Neuroscientist Lectureship Award (2022), the Society for Experimental Biology President’s Medal for the Cell Biology Section (2024), the David Hague Early Career Investigator of the Year Award from Alzheimer’s Research UK (2024), and the inaugural ALBA–Roche Research Prize for Excellence in Neuroscience (2024). More recently, he was awarded the BAU Excellence Award for Medical Research and Innovation (2025) and the Geoffrey Burnstock Prize by the British Pharmacological Society.