Zurina Hassan, BSc PhD

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Areas of Interest: 

neuroplasticity, animal behaviour in cognition

Biography & Research: 

Dr Zurina Hassan is an Associate Professor at Centre for Drug Research (CDR), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. She graduated from University of Manchester, UK with B.Sc. (Hons) in Biomedical Sciences (1999) and completed her M.Sc. (Pharmacy) (2005) and Ph.D. in Physiology at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2012. In 2013, she went for training at Prof Hans C. Dringenberg lab at Department of Psychology and Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queens University, Canada in electrophysiology especially recording brain activity (EEG) and in vivo synaptic plasticity in animal model. Recently, she was appointed as Visiting Scientist at National Neuroscience Institute (NNI), Singapore and Temporary advisor of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) which is held in WHO headquaters, Geneva, Switzerland. In CDR, she leads a team which emphasizes on behaviour neuroscience and striving to be a reference center for those who are planning to participate in behaviour neuroscience in their research. She works as electrophysiologist and behavioural neuroscientists. Her research has always been concerned with understanding neural mechanisms of motivation, learning and memory especially in drug addiction and neurodegenerative disease. For the past few years, she has been working very hard to obtain important data with regards to the abuse potential and adverse cognitive effects of mitragynine (Kratom). She published the work in high impact factor journals and presented in various international conferences. Recently, she has been awarded Georg Foster Research Award by Alexander von Hamboldt Foundation.