Rate My Professor Ahmed Abdelfattah

Ahmed Abdelfattah is the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney University Assistant Professor of Brain Science and Assistant Professor of Engineering at Brown University. He holds an appointment in the Department of Neuroscience and is affiliated with the Carney Institute for Brain Science, having joined the faculty in 2021. Abdelfattah received a B.S. in pharmacy and biotechnology from the German University in Cairo in 2009 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Alberta in 2016, where he was awarded the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the President’s Doctoral Prize of Distinction. Prior to his position at Brown, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus from 2016 to 2021.

The Abdelfattah lab develops molecular tools to visualize and study brain circuits using bioengineering and chemical approaches, integrating electrophysiology, fluorescence imaging, protein engineering, and advanced genetic methods. Research interests include cellular and molecular neurobiology, neuroengineering, and neurotechnology. Key innovations include Voltron, a chemigenetic fluorescent voltage indicator that enables simultaneous imaging of neural activity from dozens of living neurons, now utilized by hundreds of labs worldwide. Representative publications are “Bright and photostable chemigenetic indicators for extended in vivo voltage imaging” (Science, 2019), “Sensitivity optimization of a rhodopsin-based fluorescent voltage indicator” (Neuron, 2023), “A general approach to engineer positive-going eFRET voltage indicators” (Nature Communications, 2020), “The HaloTag as a general scaffold for far-red tunable chemigenetic indicators” (Nature Chemical Biology, 2021), and “Erasable labeling of neuronal activity using a reversible calcium marker” (eLife, 2020). Abdelfattah has earned prestigious honors, including the Searle Scholar Award (2021, $300,000), the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2021, $1.5 million over five years), and the Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award (2022). His contributions advance high-resolution imaging and manipulation of brain activity, supporting investigations into neural circuit function and disorders.