Dr Majid Malboubi BSc, MSc, PhD, FHEA

Dubai Campus
Head of Quality Assurance
Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Contact details

Email: m.malboubi@bham.ac.uk

Address: University of Birmingham Dubai
Dubai International Academic City
PO Box 341799
Dubai, UAE

Dr Majid Malboubi is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering.

Inspired by the workings of nature, Dr Malboubi applies the principles of mechanics and design micro-tools to unravel the physics underlying cellular processes and to understand how cells interact with their surroundings. Dr Malboubi completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham and worked on the interaction of biological membranes with solid substrates, and published several articles on this subject, as well as a book (Gigaseal formation in patch clamping, Springer, 2014).

Upon moving to the London Centre of Nanotechnology at UCL, Dr Malboubi worked on the poroelasticity and pressure propagation in cells to explain cells’ ability to sustain transient and prolonged pressure gradients across their cytoplasm in response to extrinsic and intrinsic mechanical stresses. Dr Malboubi also developed several microfluidic devices for cancer metastasis and drug screening. Subsequently, Dr Malboubi moved to the University of Oxford to investigate the effects of mechanical loadings, such as compression or stretch on neural electrophysiological responses and the ability of neurons to fire action potentials after trauma.

Qualifications

2019 – 2021 - Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Birmingham
2020 - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
2007 – 2011 - PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham

Biography

02/2020 – Present Head of Quality Assurance, University of Birmingham Dubai
06/2018 – Present Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Birmingham
05/2016 – 05/2018 Researcher Co-Investigator, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford
07/2014 – 05/2016 Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford
10/2011 – 07/2014 Postdoctoral Researcher,London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London

Teaching

Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics
Energy Transfer and Thermodynamics
Mechanical Design
Manufacturing
Mechanics Laboratory
Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

Research

Gigaseal formation
Microfluidics
Cell and tissue mechanics
Substrate-Membrane interactions
3D Printing

Funding

EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Challenge Awards. Electrophysiological-mechanical coupled pulses in neural membranes: a new paradigm for clinical therapy of SCI and TBI (NeuroPulse), £991,283, [EP/N020987/1], Co-Investigator.

Other activities

Memberships

Member of Advance HE
Member of Biophysical Society
Member of International Association of Engineers
Member of The Marine Biological Association (2016 – 2018)
Member of The Royal Microscopical Society (2010 – 2016)

Reviewer

Member of Topical Advisory Panel of Micromachines journal

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Malboubi, M & Jiang, K 2014, Gigaseal formation in patch clamping with applications of nanotechnology. Springer.

Article

Malboubi, M, Jerusalem , A & Bianchi, F 2019, '3D finite element formulation for mechanical–electrophysiological coupling in axonopathy', Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering.

Malboubi, M, Jerusalem , A & Contera, S 2019, 'Electrophysiological-mechanical coupling in the neuronal membrane and its role in ultrasound neuromodulation and general anaesthesia', Acta Biomaterialia.

Malboubi, M, Jerusalem, A & Bianchi, F 2019, 'Engineering a uniaxial substrate-stretching device for simultaneous electrophysiological measurements and imaging of strained peripheral neurons', Medical Engineering & Physics.

Malboubi, M, Bianchi, F & Jerusalem, A 2019, 'Ion current and action potential alterations in peripheral neurons subject to uniaxial strain', Journal of Neuroscience Research.

Malboubi, M 2018, 'Fascin regulates nuclear movement and plasticity in migrating cells', Developmental Cell.

Malboubi, M 2018, 'Rapid and efficient differentiation of functional motor neurons from human iPSC for neural injury modelling', Stem Cell Research.

Malboubi, M, Gu, Y & Jiang, K 2011, 'Characterization of surface properties of glass micropipettes using SEM stereoscopic technique', Microelectronic Engineering, vol. 88, no. 8, pp. 2666-2670. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2011.02.029

Mohammadkhani, A, Malboubi, M, Anthony, C & Jiang, K 2011, 'Characterization of surface properties of ordered nanostructures using SEM stereoscopic technique', Microelectronic Engineering, vol. 88, no. 8, pp. 2687-2690. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2010.12.039

Malboubi, M, Gu, Y & Jiang, K 2011, 'Surface properties of glass micropipettes and their effect on biological studies', Nanoscale Research Letters, vol. 6, pp. 401. https://doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-6-401

Malboubi, M, Ostadi Valiabad, H, Wang, S, Gu, Y & Jiang, K 2009, 'Effects of the surface morphology of pipette tip on giga-seal formation', Engineering Letters, vol. 17, no. 4.

Ostadi Valiabad, H, Malboubi, M & Jiang, K 2009, 'FIB/SEM nano tomorgraphy of a micro pipette', Microelectronic Engineering.