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The researchers received the prize in recognition for their contributions in various fields of science.
Two Moroccan scientists, Said Yaktin and Khalil Ben Haj Amin, were recently honored at the 41st Kuwait Prize ceremony, a celebration of global scientific brilliance.
This prestigious award, presented by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science (KFAS), aims to recognize and reward Arab scientists for their excellence across a range of scientific disciplines.
Said Yatkin, Professor of Higher Education at the Faculty of Letters and Humanities at Mohammed V University in Rabat, was awarded the prize in the Humanities, Arts, and Literature category.
His work on “Literature and Art in the Arab World – Specialization in Narrative Sciences” was selected from a pool of 43 applications for the prize in the literary category.
This recognition is the result of his extensive research on narrative, literary theory, critical literature, Arab-Islamic narrative heritage, and popular culture.
Yaktin’s dedication to advancing knowledge in these domains continues to serve as an inspiration to other scholars and students.
Meanwhile, Khalil Ben Haj Amin, who heads the battery technology group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, was honored in the Applied Sciences category, under the theme of “Clean and Sustainable Energy Technologies.”
Ben Haj’s groundbreaking work in battery technology and his contribution to the applied sciences of clean and sustainable energy technology stood out from the work of 30 finalists.
His achievements have been hailed for paving the way for significant advances in the energy sector and promoting environmentally-friendly solutions.
Established in 1979 by the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science, the Kuwait Prize embodies the Foundation’s commitment to supporting scientific research in all its facets. It also inspires Arab scholars and scientists to strive for excellence in their fields.
The United Arab Emirates, established in 1971, is one of the youngest countries in the world, and when you get there, pretty much everything you see around you is new. It is also one of the wealthiest, most neutral, and most inclusive countries in the world, trying to attract top talent and technology companies in the most promising areas of human development, such as AI, digital health, and sustainable energy. Today, it is a melting pot bringing people from all over the world.
In 2013, out of the 9.2 million inhabitants, only 1.4 million were Emirati citizens. Since the local population is so small, dates back many centuries, and is organized as the electoral monarchy, where bloodlines play a very important role, the country introduced mandatory premarital genetic testing for all Emiratis to reduce the incidence of severe genetic diseases. Leading the program is Her Excellency Dr, Maryam Matar, who I happened to meet during Arab Health week in February 2022. I attended her talk organized by the Dubai-based P4ML, led by the proud Irishman Patrick Moloney. When Dr. Matar took the stage, she started her talk with an introduction to the achievements of UAE Genetic Diseases Association and potential negative impact of rare diseases in the UAE. She explained the significant initiatives introduced by the government to reduce the prevalence of common genetic disorders such as mandatory premarital screening.
Then, serendipitously, she shifted gears and started talking about the most important cause in biomedicine – human longevity. She opened with the introduction of the biomarkers of aging dubbed the aging clocks, presented the recent works by David Sinclair and Nir Barzilai, and concluded with her own research in this area with a focus on role of sleep hygiene and the microbiome. Since I founded the largest volunteer-run educational program in longevity medicine, I thought that I knew pretty much every major practitioner in the field. But Dr. Matar made it clear that the research her group is conducting is published mostly in journals geared toward the Arab nations and building the local ecosystem in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The next day, Dr. Matar agreed to give a talk at the opening ceremony of the first AI and quantum computing research center in Abu Dhabi. Again, she focused on the biomarkers of aging, sleep hygiene and the microbiomes, and the epigenetic reprogramming tools available for the community. Most importantly, she explained in simple terms what the future of longevity medicine is and why it is important. After the event, I took the liberty and asked her a few questions. And we sat down for a conversation.
Dr. Maryam Mohamed Fatma Matar, MD, PhD, is an Emirati geneticist, medical researcher, and runs a TV program “With Dr.Maryam” on the National channel of United Arab Emirates (UAE). A physician by qualification, she obtained her medical degree in Dubai, she pursued a Ph.D. degree. After the completion of her degrees in medicine and in business, she was shortlisted and recruited by the Government of the UAE to lead Dubai community development strategy 2006-2016. While working for the government, Dr. Matar became the first Emirati woman to hold the position of Senior Undersecretary of the of Public health and Primary health care at Ministry of Health in 2008 and than she was promoted to be the first Emirati woman to hold the position of Director General in the Dubai government at the Community Development Authority in 2008.
In 2004 she founded the UAE Genetic Diseases Association. She also founded the Sheikh Zayed Genetic Research Center and became a committee member of the Global Commission to End the Diagnostic Odyssey for Children with a Rare Disease. In last two decades, she has founded more than 14 nonprofit associations in the field of health advocacy and awareness and founded several initiatives on women leadership and girls in STEM for the UAE. Several of these outfits grew rapidly as they serve a critical need of the community and are functioning as independent associations today. In 2019, Dr Maryam Matar received the coveted ‘Pioneering Arab Woman in healthcare innovation in Kuwait, and was highlighted as the top 20 Arab scientists with the biggest contribution to humanity by British Scientific Community. She is named among 100 most powerful Arab women more than six times and is recognised as one of the most influential Muslim female scientists.
A Muslim Female Physician Scientist on the Quest for Increased Health Spans
During the World Government Summit in Dubai, I got to speak with Dr. Matar at length to learn about the longevity initiatives in the UAE and her role in the longevity community.
“I just wanted to make it clear from the very beginning that from the Islamic point of view, nobody can help anyone live longer. But what we can do is to improve the quality of peoples’ lives and elongate the healthy portion of their life”, said Dr. Matar.
This came to me as a surprise. Before opening an AI research center in Abu Dhabi, we got extensive cultural training to prevent any disrespectful behavior. But I never realized that direct focus on increased lifespan would be incoherent with the local religious views. I politely made a disclaimer that in light of this new information, let’s assume that the word “longevity” means increased health span and improved quality of life. We proceeded.
“As a young physician, my aim was to specialize in the field of plastic surgery and use the technology and tools available then, to help women young. Since then my passion for wellbeing and staying ageless has continued but my approach became more holistic and comprehensive with the help of Epigenetics. I was actively involved in the global community of advance genetic sciences especially cell ageing and rejuvenation therapies and I have learnt and deepen my skills, knowledge and qualifications in this field since many years. Last decade has been transformative in genetic sciences and very rapid progress is made in the field of Epigenetics and regenerative therapies globally”, continued Dr. Matar.
Healthy Longevity in the UAE
I went on and asked about what the UAE is doing to increase the healthy longevity of its citizens. Again, assuming that longevity means increased health span. Dr. Matar explained.
“UAE nationals had life expectancy of 60 years in mid 70s, and in 2022 it is 78.9 years, a leap in a very short time. The government has taken health as one of the key indicators of development and there has been a very strategic commitment with focus on multiple factors that affect health.
UAE government has created one of the best public health services system and infrastructure in the world. The Government has identified the leading causes of diseases and mortality such as infectious diseases, burden of genetic disorders and successfully managed, minimized or eliminated such causes in a short span of time. Accessibility and affordability of good healthcare and a shift towards prevention has paid dividends for the country. Improving the quality of life, healthier lifestyle and a focus on creating awareness among the younger generations are major steps towards increase the longevity of the citizens. Leading medical, research and healthcare institutions in the UAE are contributing towards the vision of a healthier nation with programs, studies and initiatives.
There are surprises – several national programs, emphasizing the reprogramming the genes, reversal of biological age and healthier and happy life for the citizens.
UAE is already among leading countries who are bringing the future possibilities to become real in present. The future of longevity in UAE is bright as here we are not only talking of the lifespan but also additionally ensuring an outstanding quality of life. UAE is undisputedly one of the best countries to have a high quality of life, enjoy a successful and happy life for oneself and for your families, and be part of a positive and peaceful society. This is my invitation to all peace loving, creative and smart people to consider UAE as their second home.
Dr Maryam Matar Reprogram Your Genes Program
We continued and I asked Dr. Matar what is she personally doing to stay youthful and vibrant. And she explained her own regimen.
I have very successfully incorporated my own signature and unique program in my life. Dr Maryam Matar Reprogram Your Genes – is my signature program, designed to utilize the science of Epigenetics, cell rejuvenation and Microbiome intelligence, for age reversal.
This program was launched in early 2021 and is completely personalized roadmap best suited for professionals, leaders and citizens who wish to retain their peak health, peak performance of their body and brains and stay youthful. A key feature of this program is using Epigenetics, understanding genes and ethnicity to plan how to derive best benefit of fitness or exercise routines, food and other dietary intakes.
I also follow a personalized plan conceptualized by me in UAE Genetic Diseases Association, and popularly known as reprogram my genes. It is an epigenetics based lifestyle plan using critical and essential factors such as mind-body balance, stress management, lifestyle management to maintain optimal telomere length, remodel cell membrane in regards to insulin intake etcetera and increasing the efficiency and number of mitochondria .
I fully live as an example case study of my program. As a multitasker woman who plays multiple roles, especially of a mother, I have a highly disciplined life built on my own programs. My everyday routine is designed with awareness, taking care of all essentials which I recommend for my clients, such as sleep hygiene, lifestyle, nutrition and stress management.
source/content: forbes.com (headline edited) / Dr Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD
A total of 79 scientists from Cairo University are among a list of 160,000 scientists whose practical opinions are cited in various specializations with a (2 percent).
President of Cairo University Dr. Mohamed Othman Elkhosht received a report on Stanford University’s announcement of a list of scientists whose practical opinions are cited in various specializations with a (2 percent), featuring about 160,000 scientists from 149 countries, based on the Scopus database, in 22 scientific specializations, and 176 sub-specialization for distinguished researchers.
Dr. Elkhosht announced that the Stanford list included a large number of Cairo University scientists, with a total of 79 scientists on the two lists, whether the total from 2011 to 2022, or the latest version 2023, as this year’s list included scientists from 11 colleges (an increase of 8% over the previous year).
Number of scholars featured from Cairo University in the report’s 2022 edition was 73 scholars, representing 9 of the university’s faculties, and compared to the number of 74 and 55 scholars during the previous years (2021 and 2020, respectively), Cairo University thus leads all Egyptian universities and research centers in all years from 2020 until now.
Dr. ElKhosht explained that the annual Stanford University report is an objective, external indicator of the progress of scientific research at Cairo University.
It is also a quantitative indicator for the university to identify the number of distinguished faculty members in research and a reflection of the university’s methodology, plan, applied practices, and the support that the university provides to its employees from the various colleges and institutes affiliated with it.
Dr. Mahmoud Al-Saeed, Vice President of the University for Postgraduate Studies and Research, pointed out that the report reflects the strengthening of the confidence of the international scientific and research community in our scientists in all fields and specializations, and that the results of the classification this year included two lists, the first of which is specific to the list of the total practical years 2011 – 2022 (with a total of 417 scientists), While the second included the list of last year, 2022, with a total of 817 scientists, adding that this year’s list (2023 edition) contained 926 Egyptian scientists, while last year’s list (2022 edition) included 680 Egyptian scientists from various universities and research centers, compared to 605 and 396 during the years 2021 and 2020, respectively.
Stanford University used the Scopus database of the international publisher Elsevier to extract various indicators in this list, including global scientific publishing, the number of citations, the H index, and co-authorship, all the way to the composite citation index.
source/content: egypttoday.com (headline edited)
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Dr. Fares bin Abdullah Al-Farsi, with his team, won the prize for the best innovative research project in a science marathon, in which more than 27 teams from various countries participated, during the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Dr. Al-Farsi explained to Oman News Agency (ONA) that the winning project is concerned with using smart biochips to identify and resist bacteria that cause infections in chronic wounds, indicating that these slides contain microscopic antibodies manufactured in a laboratory, and linked to enzymes and sensors that help identify and eliminate bacteria as they approach the wound site.
He pointed out that the winning project was part of a research team consisting of young scientists from several disciplines, with the support of the “Max Planck” Foundation in the Federal Republic of Germany, adding that the participating research projects were evaluated by a scientific committee consisting of a number Nobel Prize-winning scientists, as well as global investors in the field of developing scientific research.
Dr. Al-Farsi pointed out that his participation in the 72nd Lindau Nobel laureate Meeting, which was held last June in the Federal Republic of Germany, came with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation to represent the Sultanate of Oman among the top 600 young scientists in the medical field, with the participation of more than 40 Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
An Omani innovator has won the Grand Prize in an international competition in South Korea among 353 innovations from more than 18 countries around the world, Oman News Agency (ONA) announced.
Omani innovator Razan bint Hamad Al Kalbani won the Grand Prize in the Korea International Women’s Innovations Exhibition and Competition (KIWIE) for her innovation “X-ray absorbing coating from a natural ingredient”, among 353 innovations from more than 18 countries around the world.
Razan Al-Kalbani told Oman News Agency that her scientific innovation is a coating that absorbs X-rays from a natural ingredient (lycopene), which is the red pigment found in tomatoes, watermelons, red fruits and vegetables in general.
She added “After extracting the lycopene, I carried out laboratory tests and mixed it with a coating with unique properties and techniques to ensure that the properties of the lycopene were not affected.”
She pointed out that the scientific innovation is the first of its kind in the world using a natural compound to shield rays, indicating that the paint absorbs rays by 97%, and is characterized by being 100% water and moisture resistant, and 95% heat resistant, and prevents the formation of mold and bacteria, and is non-flammable.
She pointed out that one of the most prominent features of this scientific innovation is the possibility of using tomato mold to extract lycopene, and in terms of mechanical advantage, it is less expensive than the lead currently used.
She stated that her participation in the Korea International Women’s Innovations Competition and Exhibition (KIWIE) came with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth.
She stated that her scientific innovation achieved many achievements at all levels, whether global, regional and local, most notably her winning the first place in the Falling Walls Lab competition in November 2020, the silver medal at the Challenge and Innovation Forum in the State of Qatar, the gold medal at the Second Beirut International Innovation Exhibition.
She also won the silver medal at the level of the Middle East in the Mabaret Fayda Al-Saad competition in the State of Kuwait.
The University of Rhode Island neurotoxicologist and dean came to the U.S. for college in the 1980s.
Nasser Zawia hails from Al Bayda, a town in the south of Yemen, a country that has long been affected by war and is currently experiencing widespread famine. Zawia traveled to the U.S. in the 1980s to earn an undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He stayed in America, obtaining a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from the University of California, Irvine. But Zawia never planned to stay on in the U.S. permanently. “Like many students who came here in the 80s, the objective was to come to go to school and go back to your home country and serve there,” he told The Scientist. “However, I married an American citizen.”
In 1990, Zawia and his wife moved to Yemen, where he planned to take a job at Sana’a University’s medical school. But the first Gulf War broke out in 1991. “The war was between Kuwait and Iraq,” he said. “But at that time, the position of the Yemeni government was supportive of Iraq. The connections with the U.S. were being threatened. I left during a climate where there was a lot of uncertainty and fear and insecurity as to what might happen.”
Returning to the U.S. in 1991, Zawia used connections he had made in US universities to secure postdoctoral positions at the University of South Florida and then at the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. After studying environmental toxicology at NIEHS, Zawia landed a faculty position at Meharry Medical College, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied the developmental effects of lead exposure in minority populations. “I found that to be something where I could serve the underserved,” he said. “I stayed there for five years and then moved to the University of Rhode Island.”
Although he was successfully navigating the halls of academia and earning his citizenship in the early ’90s, life in the U.S. was not easy for Zawia. “The U.S. was not very receptive to people from the Middle East at that time because of the first Gulf War,” he recalled. “Those of us from that region of the world, our life is always punctuated by all kinds of events involving war. Every 10 years it seems like something big happens, which impacts us in many ways.”
The next big event that would have an effect on Zawia and countless other Americans happened on September 11, 2001. “Those of us who are Arab Americans/Muslim Americans in this country have always been dealing with wars and difficulties in our ancestral homes. But we didn’t ever think or expect that someone would come to the U.S. and cause such a catastrophe. And it changed our lives a lot. And everybody else’s,” he said. “But still we were Muslims in the U.S., and we had to deal with the Patriot Act and then the NSEERS [National Security Entry-Exit Registration System] registration for citizens coming from Muslim countries.”
Despite anti-Muslim sentiment spawned by the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Zawia chose to stay. Since setting up his University of Rhode Island (URI) lab in 2000, he’s made seminal discoveries, including research that pointed to a developmental basis for Alzheimer’s disease. He and his colleagues found that early exposure to lead increased the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease–related pathologies later in life. Zawia is now working on the epigenetics involved in this phenomenon, and said that his team is pursuing clinical trials of a repurposed drug to treat rare types of neurodegenerative disorders in Europe.
Although the Trump administration’s executive orders on immigration have restricted some travel for people from several countries in the Middle East, including Yemen, the policy has not directly affected Zawia, a naturalized US citizen. But both as a scientist who attends international conferences and as an administrator who seeks to entice talented students from all corners of the world to come to URI, he said he is seeing the damage the restrictions are having. “It is a concern for faculty here that were born in one of those seven countries,” he said. “Even though the law might be clear, how it’s applied may have an impact on our mobility.”
Zawia noted that the effects of the new immigration policies appear to be restricting the flow of students to URI and other US academic institutions. “In graduate education—especially in the STEM disciplines . . . we’re very heavily dependent on international students—it looks like huge drops in applications, a lot of concerns among our students on campus,” he said. “It just sends the wrong message. Graduate education is a strategic asset for the United States. Having the best minds come for an education here, staying, and interacting with our faculty and researchers is the secret to us always maintaining our leadership position.”
On top of the uncertainty surrounding his life as an immigrant researcher and administrator in the U.S., Zawia is grappling with an increasingly unstable situation in his home country, where some of his family still live: 19 million Yemenis are on the brink of a catastrophic famine in a country besieged by civil war. “My personal life and my connections to the country and my family have been upside down, to say the least,” he said.
With all that Zawia has witnessed in the U.S. as a Muslim Arab-American, he views the current political and social climate as the most damaging he’s seen. “I feel the impact of what’s going on now is much greater than what we experienced in the ’90s, with first war in Iraq or 9/11,” he says. “What’s going on right now is really very unsettling and very worrisome. Past events and past wars had more of a selective impact on us as Middle Eastern people and Muslim Americans. But the changes this administration is bringing about in many different facets of life is really . . . disrupting a lot.”
source/content: the-scientist.com / bob grant (headline edited)
Ines Zaidi, Professor of Immunology at the Higher Institute of Medical Technologies at the University of Tunis El Manar, received the science and technology award of the Francophone University Agency during her participation in the ninth edition of the Francophone Award for Young Researchers.
Dr. Inas, a specialist in blood cell biology, excelled in the competition which included 113 candidates from different continents, such as America, Asia and Africa.
Thanks to her immensely advanced research, which demonstrates intelligence, scientific and cognitive abilities. The scholar’s work has also been published in more than 40 international medical articles, which have provided many additions to humanity, health and medicine in general. Zaidi has been awarded the Sadiq Bessour scientific prize for research excellence in 2017, supported by the Sadiq Foundation in collaboration with the University of Montreal and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in Tunisia.
Regarding the nature and importance of Ines Zaidi’s research, the piece of work highlights the inclusion and regulation of HASH-1 molecules in public health diseases, as an added value in the follow-up of pathological conditions, as well as in proposing new therapeutic strategies.
Only three other researchers in the world received the Francophone award from universities in Canada and Morocco, making them 4 international researchers with scientific recognition and utterly significant achievements.
Trailblazing Jordanian-British research fellow reveals that her prescription for success requires dispensing – but only with tradition.
Most Damascene moments are dramatic by definition but few occur, as Atheer Awad’s did, on an actual road that leads to the Syrian capital.
Her own turning point came when the vehicle she was travelling in with her family to register for university in Amman blew a tyre, hit an electricity pole and flipped several times.
The accident meant that Awad ended up in hospital and missed the window to sign up to study medicine. By the time she was discharged, the only degree option still open to her was pharmacy.
Though bitterly disappointed at the time, she has come to believe that there were greater forces at work on the day of the crash on Jordan Street.
“Let’s just say we put our car to the test,” Awad tells The National. “It was a complete wreck. We are lucky to be alive.
“But it wasn’t meant to be that I should study medicine. I took the car accident as a sign that the future held better things for me.”
As a result, she was steered into an unexpected career in which the eventualresearch fellow at University College London would amass numerous accolades: the Journal of Clinical Medicine‘s 2021 PhD Thesis award; an appearance on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Europe; reaching the finals in the Women of the Future awards 2022 in the science category; named as an International Pharmaceutical Federation FIPWise Rising Star for 2022 as well as one of the top 15 outstanding innovators under the age of 35 by the MIT Technology Review.
Her groundbreaking research is paving the way towards the creation of personalised medication that can be 3D-printed in patients’ homes via smartphone — a potentially transformative innovation for those who find it hard to gain access to health care or don’t suit a one-size-fits-all service.
Born in Abu Dhabi and raised in Dubai by Jordanian parents, her hand was always first in the air in class when volunteers were sought to dissect animals at Al Mawakeb School in Garhoud.
It was an early display of Awad’s enthusiasm for the sciences, particularly biology, and a prelude to her ambition of becoming a heart surgeon.
“I was so determined to make a difference and medicine is one of those industries that has a greater impact when it comes to changing people’s lives,” she says.
“There is never a boring day with science because every day is a new learning experience.
“You come across things that you haven’t discovered before or create new stuff by just playing around with things in the lab and mixing them together. It’s that sort of curiosity that motivates me.”
Back then, holidays were regularly spent visiting Jordan — trips that Awad still makes annually to catch up with extended family, go to weddings and indulge a soft spot for the local food.
“I love those traditional connections,” she says, “and still follow as many of these practices as I can, wherever I am.
“My faith helps a lot. But it isn’t easy trying to keep a balance between sticking to faith and being able to live in a foreign country.”
Moving to England wasn’t as daunting as it might have been without the unwavering support of her parents and four older siblings — a pharmacist, a consultant with whom she lived until recently, an IT specialist and a doctor.
“It is rare for all of us to be in the same country at the same time,” she says, laughing. “We travel between the three countries and there is always at least one of us living in each of the three. That makes it interesting for my parents, who get to travel everywhere.”
Awad herself, now 29, is a keen traveller and has put on her bucket list the wish to visit every country in Europe before turning her sights to other continents.
She fell in love with Turkey after a trip to Cappadocia, the semi-arid central region known for its “fairy chimney” rock formations, and particularly enjoys explorations on foot.
London, however, holds a special place in her heart, where there is, she points out, a big Jordanian community.
“I have a lot of friends I consider my second family. They’re a mixture of scientists, people outside work, and others with Jordanian or Arab heritage. That keeps me connected to my roots and it is one of the beauties of London — it’s international.”
But she calls Dubai home and makes many happy returns to Living Legends, a newly developed 14 million-square-foot community on the outskirts of the city where her parents still live.
Part of the appeal of the emirate, it should be said, is the chance to hit the luxury shops. Dior and Prada are favourites — her handbag collection alone extends to “about 40 or 50 … I’ve lost count” — and the Swarovski-encrusted mobile phone she takes everywhere is a particularly prized purchase.
Invariably, though, one of the first stops is to fill up on luqaimat, known as awama in the Levant. She has sampled the sugary doughnuts wherever she finds them but maintains that the ones whipped up for as long as Awad can remember by her mum, Hanan Swais, “are the best”.
They were an abiding taste of a childhood in which the extroverted Awad, left to explore her own interests by her father, Jamal, an electronics retailer, and Hanan, a homemaker, played the piano exuberantly if not with any notable proficiency and went on Scouting expeditions.
There was never an expectation that she would follow in the footsteps of any of her siblings but the desire to pursue medicine was strong nonetheless.
“It wasn’t until we were discharged from hospital [after the car accident] that I realised I had missed the deadline,” she says. “There was no going back in time. I just thought: ‘What’s the next best option?’
“That’s why I always say I did not choose pharmacy — it chose me.”
Despite a reluctant start, Awad’s enthusiasm grew throughout a five-year degree at the private Applied Science University in Amman as she gained insight into the extent of what pharmacists could actually do.
“I started looking at pharmacy as having a bigger impact than I had previously thought,” she says.
“People sometimes look at pharmacists as if they are beneath or less important than doctors when, in fact, they do most of the work behind the scenes.”
Little by little, with the consolidation of hours of satisfying sessions spent researching in laboratories or learning about the differences in the properties of various drugs, it dawned on Awad that she had stumbled across her calling.
Which is not to say that she appreciated being treated as little more than a saleswoman while doing work experience in a community pharmacy during the degree course.
“People assume that the pharmacist just takes the prescription and gets the medication without doing anything else,” she says. “There is a misconception.”
The experience hardened Awad’s resolve to focus on research rather than the direct, community-facing side of the profession.
After graduation in 2015, she embarked on a master’s in pharmaceutics and drug design at UCL, where she learnt about 3D printing during an end-of-year project with her professor, Abdul Basit.
She was inspired to keep working with the Basit Research Group within the School of Pharmacy to undertake a doctorate specialising in using the drug-delivery technology in the manufacture of medicines.
“I’ve always been interested in technology so it grabbed my interest immediately,” says Awad, who is still a research fellow with the group.
Weekends when she is not working are spent dining with friends, indulging her obsession for Harry Potter — “I’ve watched all the films multiple times” — and baking. Coffee cake is her speciality and made a well-received appearance at her professor’s 50th birthday.
“I do like experimenting with baking and cooking. I think there are similarities between baking and science.”
She doesn’t rule out applying to appear on The Great British Bake Off television show but, for now, Awad’s ambitions are confined to the lab.
“I want to make a change,” she says. “I don’t want 3D printing to stay a theory. I want to see it being implemented and taken up by healthcare agencies.”
Most recently, Awad has been printing tablets with Braille and moon patterns on their surfaces for visually impaired patients, or changing their shape, size and colour so that children or those with limited capacity find them easier to take. She has also been researching how to combine several medications into a single pill.
One of her team’s successes has been in creating tablets that can be swallowed without water. Manufactured in partnership with pharmaceutical 3D-printing specialist FabRx by melting powder particles with a laser beam and using heat, the porous product dissolves on the tongue.
She talks about how 3D printing allows alterations of a fraction of a milligram, making medication much more tailored and precise than the standard variety available off the shelf.
“Every person is different and our bodies do not react the same,” Awad says. “The requirements when it comes to medication differ, and sometimes they differ within the same person, depending on the disease progression.
“We can also take patients’ preferences into consideration. That’s important when it comes to children or elderly patients. Often children refuse to take medicine because they don’t like the taste, the shape isn’t appealing or the pill might be too big.”
While 3D printing for customised pharmaceuticals has yet to be introduced commercially in the UK, Awad’s UCL team has managed to convert a smartphone into an on-demand 3D drug printer with an app that could be used in remote GP surgeries and even at home.
“We’re not far from the industry adopting 3D printing, probably in the next two to five years,” she says. “Approval will have to be on a medication-by-medication basis because each medicine could behave differently to the same technology, depending on its properties, and the 3D-printing technologies themselves differ.”
Awad’s passion for her work is tangible. The British-American analytics company Clarivate clearly thought so when last month listing her on its influential Highly Cited 2022. It was a remarkable achievement for such a young scientist to appear among fewer than 0.1 per cent of the world’s researchers across 21 fields.
Such recognition is welcome but, she says, the many “titles are more of an assurance that I am on the right track and that my work is important”.
“That’s the driving force to keep me moving forward and become even more ambitious to try new things,” she says.
One of her guiding principles is that researchers should be brave and adopt different approaches because even the most “ridiculous” ideas can be turned into brilliant inventions or innovations.
As she has been known to opine, not all scientific breakthroughs happen through planned research: “Sometimes, you come across things by accident.”
Given the route into her career in pharmaceuticals, it could be said that Awad started very much as she meant to continue.
Michigan State University (MSU) faculty member Dr. Yasser Aldhamen created a pioneering cancer immunotherapy strategy that can shrink tumors and increase therapeutic resistance against some types of cancer.
This came during a research he recently published in “Molecular Therapy” Journal, which is classified as one of the best scientific journals specialized in genetic and cellular therapy in the world.
Professor Aldhamen’s research project took about two years, completing 41 scientific papers published in prestigious international journals, as well as 3 previous patents registered with the US Food and Drug Administration.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr. Aldhamen said, “The whole idea is to treat patients without drugs to eliminate cancer.”
“Based on my previous work, a method was devised to harness the naturally active immune system to control tumor growth by activating the action of specific immune system cells, such as NK cells, and innate immune cells, such as macrophages and dendritic cells, within tumors.”
Dr. Aldhamen occupies, in addition to his duties, the position of Deputy Director of Research in the Faculty of Medicine at Michigan State University, and has supervised 5 students in the doctoral stage, two students in the master’s stage, and more than 15 students in the bachelor’s stage.
He also receives some trainees for 8 weeks from the secondary stage, by virtue of his interest in training future researchers in the laboratory, motivating them that making the world takes a long time.
He also participated in 15 conferences around the world, and membership in a number of advisory committees at the university working on developing research and exchanging experiences with researchers in countries such as Egypt and Peru. — SPA
Google search engine celebrated the late Hamed Gohar’s 115th birth anniversary on 15 November with a Google Doodle.
The Egyptian scientist, marine biologist and TV host, Gohar is considered the founding father of oceanography in Egypt and the Arab world.
Born on 15 November 1907, he studied medicine at Cairo University in 1925 before shifting to biology. He then received his master’s degree in oceanography from Cambridge University in 1931.
The note under the doodle adds that “Gohar discovered that dugong, a sea mammal that was thought to be extinct in the region, still existed in the Red Sea. He continued studying underwater life for 25 years at the Hurghada marine biological station.”
He worked with the Arabic Language Academy to create scientific dictionaries in Arabic and served as an adviser to the United Nations’ Secretary General and helped organize the first International Conference on Law of the Sea in Geneva.
The general public knows Gohar for his educational show called “The Sea World” which he hosted on national television for 18 years. The programme highlighted underwater scenery and natural sea life, bringing the viewers closer to marine biology.
