Dr. Ali Akbar Ashkarran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Energy Science at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) and is affiliated with the UCCS BioFrontiers Center. His academic journey began with completing his undergraduate and master's degrees in solid-state physics, culminating in a Ph.D. in nanoscience and nanotechnology from Sharif University of Technology. Following his doctoral studies, Dr. Ashkarran pursued postdoctoral training in two renowned departments at Harvard University: the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and the Center for Nanomedicine. Before moving to the United States, he was an Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Mazandaran. Dr. Ashkarran's research spans several disciplines, focusing on the integration of nanomedicine, protein corona analysis, magnetic levitation, biosensors and bioelectronics, with a particular interest in developing innovative disease detection and diagnostic devices.

Nanomedicine

Protein corona

Disease diagnostics

Magnetic levitation

Biosensors and bioelectronics

Visible-light photocatalysis

Shape-controlled nanomaterials

Ph.D., Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Sharif University of Technology, 2009

M.Sc., Solid-State Physics, University of Tehran, 2005

B.Sc., Solid-State Physics, University of Mazandaran, 2003

NIH R03 grant, 2024                                   

Top 2% Most Influential Scientists (Stanford University, October 2023)                                                 

Life Wave industrial grant, 2023                                                                                                                                                                       

Student Research Mentorship Award, Michigan State University, 2023                                                                                       

Top 2% Most Influential Scientists (Stanford University, October 2022)                                                 

Distinguished Researcher Award, Province of Mazandaran, 2015                                                                                                 

Excellence Teaching Award, University of Mazandaran, 2015                                                                                                         

University Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Mazandaran, 2014 

General Physics I, Analytical Mechanics I&II, Advanced Statistical Mechanics, Solid-State Physics, Quantum Mechanics I&II, Electrodynamics, Thermodynamics, Modern Physics, Special Topics in Physics, Characterizations Techniques for Nanomaterials, Applications of Nanomaterials, Biomedical Research Structure and Methods.

1. A. A. Ashkarran, H Gharibi, SM Modaresi, AA Saei, M Mahmoudi, Standardizing Protein Corona Characterization in Nanomedicine: A Multicenter Study to Enhance Reproducibility and Data Homogeneity, Nano Letters, 2024, 24, 9874.

2. H. Gharibi ^†, A. A. Ashkarran ^†, M. Jafari, E. Voke, M. P. Landry, A. A. Saei, M. Mahmoudi, A uniform database search dramatically homogenizes nanoparticle protein corona data across proteomics core facilities, Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 342. (^†: Co-first author) 

3. A. A. Ashkarran, Z. Lin, J. Rana, H. Bumpers, L. Sempere, M. Mahmoudi, Impact of Nanomedicine in Women's Metastatic Breast Cancer, Small, 2023, 2301385.

4. A. A. Ashkarran, H. Gharibi, D. Abou Zeki, I. Radu, F. Khalighinejad, K. Keyhanian, C. K. Abrahamsson, C. Ionete, A. A. Saei, M. Mahmoudi, Multi-Omics Analysis of Magnetically Levitated Plasma Biomolecules, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2023, 220, 114862.

5. A. A. Ashkarran, H. Gharibi, E. Voke, M. P. Landry, A. A. Saei, M. Mahmoudi, Measurements of heterogeneity in proteomics analysis of nanoparticle protein corona across core facilities, Nature Communications, 2022, 13, 6610.

6. A. A. Ashkarran, A. Hosseini, R. Loloee, G. Perry, K. B. Lee, M. Lund, M. R. Ejtehadi, M. Mahmoudi, Conformation-and phosphorylation-dependent electron tunnelling across self-assembled monolayers of tau peptides, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2022, 606, 2038.

7. S. Sheibani, K. Basu, A Farnudi, A. A. Ashkarran, M. Ichikawa, J. F. Presley, K. H. Bui, M. R. Ejtehadi, H. Vali, M. Mahmoudi, “Nanoscale characterization of the biomolecular corona by cryo-electron microscopy, cryo-electron tomography, and image simulation”, Nature Communications, 2021, 12, 1.

8. A. A. Ashkarran, M. Mahmoudi, Magnetic levitation: A physical tool to measure the density of unknown diamagnetic materials, Physics Education, 2021, 56, 055020. 

9. A. A. Ashkarran, M. Mahmoudi, Magnetic levitation systems for disease diagnostics, Trends in Biotechnology, 2021, 39, 311.

10. A. A. Ashkarran, T. Olfatbakhsh, M. Ramezankhani, R. C. Crist, W. H. Berrettini, A. S. Milani, S. Pakpour, M. Mahmoudi, Evolving magnetically levitated plasma proteins detects opioid use disorder as a model disease, Advanced Healthcare Materials, 2020, 9 (5), 1901608.

11. A. A. Ashkarran, N Dararatana, D Crespy, G Caracciolo, M Mahmoudi, Mapping the heterogeneity of protein corona by ex vivo magnetic levitation, Nanoscale, 2020, 12 (4), 2374-2383.