PhD candidate in the Tyrrell Lab, Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham. I study how the aging immune system contributes to vascular cognitive impairment and dementia.
My work centres on age-associated CD8+ T cells — cytotoxic and Granzyme K–expressing populations that accumulate with age — and how their interactions with reactive glia shape the neuroimmune environment of the aging brain. I work across the bench and the terminal: rodent models of neurovascular disease, brain immune-cell isolation, spectral flow cytometry, and single-cell and spatial analysis.
Supported by a 2026 American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship.
- Age-associated CD8+ T cells in brain aging and dementia
- Neuroimmune interactions between T cells and microglia
- Vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID)
- High-dimensional immune profiling — spectral flow cytometry, single-cell RNA-seq, spatial proteomics
- Reproducible computational pipelines for cytometry data
| Repository | What it is |
|---|---|
| mdakkasali.github.io | My academic website — research, publications, news |
| Spectral_Flow_Cytometry_Data_Analysis | Analysis code behind the 2024 J Immunol pipeline paper |
| mhbsiam/cafe | CAFÉ — the spectral cytometry analysis app I co-authored |
Full list on Google Scholar and ORCID.
2026 · Stephens HR, Elkins E, Li J, … Ali MA, … Norian LA. Combinatorial immunotherapy drives exhaustion in tumor antigen–specific CD8+ T cells within the mouse renal tumor microenvironment. The Journal of Immunology. 10.1093/jimmun/vkag013
2025 · Siam MHB, Ali MA, Vardaman D, Acharyya S, Patil M, Tyrrell DJ. CAFÉ: an integrated web app for high-dimensional analysis and visualization in spectral flow cytometry. Bioinformatics 41(6): btaf176. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaf176
2025 · Madabhushi M, Murphy RE, Ali MA, Paneerselvam M, Patil MH, Tyrrell DJ, Samal J. Mitochondrial glycosylation in neuroinflammation models. Cells Tissues Organs. 10.1159/000547463
2024 · Vardaman D*, Ali MA*, Siam MHB, Bolding C, Tidwell H, Stephens HR, Patil M, Tyrrell DJ. Development of a spectral flow cytometry analysis pipeline for high-dimensional immune cell characterization. The Journal of Immunology 213(11): 1713–1724. 10.4049/jimmunol.2400370 *Equal contribution.
2023 · Ali MA, Gioscia-Ryan R, Yang D, Sutton NR, Tyrrell DJ. Cardiovascular aging: spotlight on mitochondria. American Journal of Physiology–Heart and Circulatory Physiology. 10.1152/ajpheart.00632.2023
2023 · Tyrrell DJ, Wragg KM, Chen J, … Ali MA, … et al. Clonally expanded memory CD8+ T cells accumulate in atherosclerotic plaques and are pro-atherogenic in aged mice. Nature Aging. 10.1038/s43587-023-00515-w
Earlier work — molecular biology and plant genetics, SUST
2022 · Shahriar S, Rafa ZT, Mahmood MS, … Ali MA, … Hosen MJ. Insights into the role of RUNX1 gene in female-related cancers. Gene & Protein in Disease. 10.36922/gpd.v1i2.147
2016 · Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of PsCBL and PsCIPK genes in indica rice.
2013 · Genetic diversity among salt-tolerant rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces cultivated in the coastal districts of Bangladesh.
2013 · Assessment of genetic diversity among moderately drought-tolerant landraces of rice using RAPD markers.
- PhD, Biomedical Sciences — University of Alabama at Birmingham (in progress, candidate since 2025)
- MS, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology — Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, 2013
- BSc, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology — Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, 2011
Before UAB I held lecturer and assistant professor roles in the Department of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at SUST, Sylhet, Bangladesh.
mali3@uab.edu · Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Away from the lab I travel, cycle, and spend time with family.