Meet Zaafir Dulloo

Zaafir was born and raised in Mauritius, a small tropical island in the Indian Ocean. In 2015, Zaafir left his hometown of Port-Louis to attend Adelphi University, a private liberal arts college in New York. At Adelphi, Zaafir completed the synthesis and characterization of a small library of benzimidazole derivatives as potential new antitrichomonal agents under the mentorship of Prof. Melissa VanAlstine-Parris. In 2019, Zaafir pursued his growing interest in drug design and discovery at the University of Florida where he worked on the development, optimization, and formulation of a novel class of small-molecule breast cancer therapeutics (DDAs) under the mentorship of Prof. Ronald K. Castellano. During his Ph.D., Zaafir was the recipient of a Chateaubriand fellowship, a prestigious national award sponsored by the Embassy of France. During this four-month externship conducted in the lab of Prof. Arnaud Chevalier at Université Paris-Saclay, Zaafir designed and synthesized the first two DDA-based fluorescent probes for target identification. After completing his Ph.D. in 2026, Zaafir joined the Frank lab at OHSU as a Postdoctoral associate to expand his knowledge of chemical physiology and cannabinoid receptor activity. Zaafir is currently working on the design and development of novel CBD-based probes for proteome-wide target identification. Besides Chemistry, Zaafir enjoys cooking, traveling, playing pickleball, learning about dinosaurs, and finding the best restaurants and cocktail bars in Portland.