Mehrdad is a postdoctoral researcher in the Division of Pharmacology at the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Utrecht University. His work centres on inflammatory bowel disease, combining in vitro intestinal barrier systems with murine models in collaboration with an industry partner.

He currently works on a joint academic–industry project on human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). The project produces HMOs that were previously inaccessible and tests them across ex vivo gut microbiome systems, intestinal barrier cell models and host–microbe crosstalk platforms, with the goal of bringing at least one HMO with a validated effect on inflammatory bowel disease to clinical trial.

He completed his PhD at UIPS, studying how gestational antibiotic exposure — cotrimoxazole, nitrofurantoin, and amoxicillin–clavulanate — alters maternal microbial communities and shapes offspring immune development, and working with an industry partner on interventions that counteract those effects.

Immunopharmacology

Drug Innovation

Antibiotics and early-life immune challenges

Placental & intestinal studies

IBD