Young Biologists Symposium

Speakers

Dr. Imane Abbas

Head of the environmental toxicology laboratory at the Lebanese Atomic Energy Commission affiliated to the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) - Lebanon

Ms. Abbas's current research is on the interface between environment, toxicology, and health, and aims to study the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in pulmonary toxicity generated by the inhalation of particulate air pollutants. The research is based on experimental approaches: in vitro and/or in vivo models by using biological, biochemical and advanced nuclear and non-nuclear complementary techniques (PIXE, RAMAN, TOF-SIMS, etc.).

Prof. Hassan Naim

Professor, chair of the Department of Physiological Chemistry and Vice President for Research, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover - Germany

Professor Naim was trained in Biochemistry at the universities of Bern and Lausanne, Switzerland. He started investigating the aetiology and pathophysiology of gastrointestinal diseases at the University Children’s Hospital Bern where he and co-workers established the phenotypic concept of congenital disorders of enzyme deficiencies. After two years at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, USA, elucidating the structural basis of trafficking and sorting of intestinal disaccharidases, he moved to the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, supported by an award from the German Ministry for Research and Education to establish a research group on protein secretion in mammalian cells. During this period his laboratory successfully unravelled the genetics of intestinal sucrase-isomaltase deficiency. In 1997 he became a full-time professor and chair of biochemistry at the University of Veterinary Medicine. Professor Naim’s research focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying protein trafficking in health and disease, was expanded to include lysosomal storage diseases and the implication of membrane lipids in the onset of gastrointestinal disorders. Professor Naim has served on the editorial boards of, among others, the Journal of Biological Chemistry and Biochemical Journal.

Mr. Joe Ibrahim

PhD student in bioinformatics at the University of Antwerp - Belgium

After completing his BS in Biology at the Lebanese American University, Mr. Ibrahim pursued an MS in Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr. Sima Tokajian and Dr. Georges Khazen. During that period, the need for computational methods in modern biological research became clear to him, especially that his research involved large NGS datasets and the complex analysis that ensued. After his graduation in 2015, and with encouragement from his supervisors, he decided to pursue a taught MS course in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at the University of Manchester, England. There, he became well versed in the concepts of bioinformatics and had the chance to work on diverse research projects with prominent scientists. Upon completing the course in 2016, he joined the Center of Medical Genetics at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, where he is currently a PhD. student in Bioinformatics. His research involves finding diagnostic and prognostic cancer biomarkers, using next-gen DNA methylation and expression data. His main interests are statistical modelling, machine learning, data visualization and NGS data analysis.

Prof. Ghassan Matar

Professor and Vice Chairperson in the Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology & Microbiology and Laboratory Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research (CIDR) at the Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut, Lebanon

Professor Matar’s research interests include molecular epidemiology of foodborne pathogens (PulseNet), molecular mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial agents in pathogenic bacteria, combating antimicrobial resistance by combination therapy and beta-lactamase inhibitors and genetic basis of biofilm production in P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with nosocomial infections and potential inhibition of biofilm formation by Micafungin in in vitro and in vivo studies.

Dr. Andrea Telatin

Bioinformatician at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, UK

Dr. Telatin's work specializes in gut microbes and health program, while providing support and training for metagenomics and microbiome-related analyses.

Dr. Ihab Younis

Assistant Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University - Qatar

Dr Younes's lab studies post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression, specifically intron splicing. The majority of human genes contain multiple introns that are removed by the spliceosome in order to connect the protein coding exons in frame. Introns are much larger than exons with vague sequence identifiers, making the task of intron splicing seems insurmountable, yet it is done with extreme precision in normal cells. Splicing mistakes often lead to disease and its misregulation is a hallmark of cancer cells. His lab uses a variety of technologies to characterize splicing and its regulation in normal and disease cells. His team also developed the first ncRNA microarray that quantitatively measure the levels of the RNA components of the spliceosome (snRNAs). Using HTS, they discovered novel drugs that regulate splicing in cancer cells. They are currently interested in a small set of introns, named minor introns, which are removed by a specialized spliceosome. Identification of all expressed minor introns in human cervical cancer cells led to the discovery that they function as stress-induced molecular switches that control the expression of the genes that harbor them. The mechanism for switching the splicing of minor introns On or Off relies on a highly unstable catalytic RNA, U6atac, which is a core component of the minor spliceosome required for the splicing reaction.