Mailing Address

Education

• MD: Damascus University School of Medicine, Syria (1999)
• PhD: University of Regensburg, Germany (2007)

Recognition

Scholarship from the Department of Anatomy and Histology, Aleppo University, 2003
NephCure Young Investigator award, 2014
Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network (NEPTUNE) Career Development Fellowship, 2017
AWRP Summer 2016 Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association

Research Interests

Upon establishing the use of super resolution microscopy, STORM in the kidney field, I have focused on utilizing this technique to study various kidney diseases such as diabetic nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and minimal change disease.

I developed new ways to image the podocyte’s actin cytoskeleton in both animal models and human. These methods will allow us to ask new questions regarding how podocytes regulate their unique shape and maintain their function throughout life.

Publications

Suleiman H, Zhang L, Roth R, Heuser JE, Miner JH, Shaw AS, and Dani A. Nanoscale Protein Architecture of the Kidney Glomerular Basement Membrane. Elife 2013 Oct 11;2:e01663. eCollection 2013. PMID: 24137544.

Yu H, Suleiman H, Kim AH, Miner JH, Dani A, Shaw AS, Akilesh S. Rac1 activation in podocytes induces rapid foot process effacement and proteinuria. Mol Cell Biol. 2013 Dec;33(23):4755-64. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00730-13. Epub 2013 Sep 23.

Akilesh S, Suleiman H, Yu H, Stander MC, Lavin P, Gbadegesin R, Antignac C, Pollak M, Kopp JB, Winn MP, Shaw AS. Arhgap24 inactivates Rac1 in mouse podocytes, and a mutant form is associated with familial focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. J Clin Invest. 2011 Oct;121(10):4127-37. doi: 10.1172/JCI46458. Epub 2011 Sep 12.

Burghardt T, Kastner J, Suleiman H, Rivera-Milla E, Stepanova N, Lottaz C, Kubitza M, Böger CA, Schmidt S, Gorski M, de Vries U, Schmidt H, Hertting I, Kopp J, Rascle A, Moser M, Heid IM, Warth R, Spang R, Wegener J, Mierke CT, Englert C, Witzgall R. LMX1B is essential for the maintenance of differentiated podocytes in adult kidneys. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2013 Nov;24(11):1830-48. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2012080788. Epub 2013 Aug 29.

Suleiman H, Heudobler D, Raschta AS, Zhao Y, Zhao Q, Hertting I, Vitzthum H, Moeller MJ, Holzman LB, Rachel R, Johnson R, Westphal H, Rascle A, Witzgall R. The podocyte-specific inactivation of Lmx1b, Ldb1 and E2a yields new insight into a transcriptional network in podocytes. Dev Biol. 2007 Apr 15;304(2):701-12. Epub 2007 Jan 18.