Sassan graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London in 1992. In 1999, he completed a PhD thesis on vasoconstrictors and human vascular smooth muscle at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, under the supervision of Prof Sir Magdi Yacoub. In 1999, Sassan became an EU Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Lund University, Sweden, working with Prof. Björn Dahlbäck on the biology of the Gas6-TAM system. He then continued his research work under higher postdoctoral fellowships and as an independent investigator, until joining the University of Portsmouth in 2009 as Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology.

1) Growth factor and growth factor receptor signalling in disease, in particular The Gas6-TAM ligand-receptor system in cancer and in multiple sclerosis (MS).

2) Intracellular signalling via the Tensin family proteins in normal and cancer cell biology.

3) Cardiac interstitial cell biology and their contribution to normal function and to remodelling in disease.