Oliver Rawashdeh

Dr. Oliver Rawashdeh serves as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Queensland, where he also leads the Chronobiology and Sleep research group. His academic journey began with a BSc in Biology from Yarmouk University in Jordan in 2001. He then pursued advanced studies at the University of Houston, earning an MSc in 2005 and a PhD in 2007. Postdoctoral training followed in Prof. Margarita Dubocovich's laboratory at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the State University of New York, concentrating on the roles of melatonin in circadian physiology and pharmacology across development and aging in rodent and non-human primate models. From 2010 to 2015, he held a combined teaching and research position at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, instructing in gross human anatomy while researching circadian modulation of memory processes.

Rawashdeh's research program bridges neuroscience and circadian biology, investigating how endogenous biological clocks regulate sleep, learning, memory, and homeostasis, with particular emphasis on disruptions in neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other synucleinopathies. His studies encompass clock gene-mediated photic signaling, melatonin’s influence on memory consolidation, mathematical modeling of circadian networks, and chronotherapeutic strategies. He has been awarded NHMRC IDEAS Grants spanning 2020 to 2024 to explore the circadian clock as a therapeutic target for improving sleep and combating chronodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease. Prominent publications feature “Melatonin suppresses nighttime memory formation in zebrafish” (Science, 2007), “Circadian modulation of complex learning in diurnal and nocturnal Aplysia” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2005), “Learned motivation drives circadian physiology in the absence of the master circadian clock” (FASEB Journal, 2017), “Cholinergic basal forebrain degeneration due to sleep-disordered breathing exacerbates pathology in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease” (Nature Communications, 2022), “Rewiring of liver diurnal transcriptome rhythms by triiodothyronine (T3) supplementation” (eLife, 2022), “Sleep and circadian rhythms in α-synucleinopathies—perspectives for disease modification” (Acta Physiologica, 2023), and “Targeting sleep and the circadian system as a novel treatment strategy for Parkinson’s disease” (Journal of Neurology, 2023). Rawashdeh supervises doctoral students examining sleep-circadian interactions in neurodegeneration, brain injury, and related pathologies, contributing to translational advancements in chronomedicine.

Professional Email: o.rawashdeh@uq.edu.au