Bio
My doctoral training was on employing systems biology approaches including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) towards understanding immunogenetics of infectious diseases in specific group A streptococcal sepsis. I was trained under the supervision of Dr. Malak Kotb at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, United States (Aziz et al. 2007, Abdeltawab et al. 2008). During my postdoctoral training, I worked in collaboration with several research teams to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs) modulating differential host responses to a number of infectious diseases including Ebola and shiga-toxin producing E. coli (Zumbrun et al. 2012 and Russo et al. 2015). In addition, working with my co-mentor Dr. Robert W. Williams team, I successfully completed genome-wide transcriptional profiling projects, including mouse spleen (for more than100 BXD RI strains) and a human genome diversity cell line panel (CEPH panel). These high-throughput studies were deposited in GeneNetwork online platform aiming to compare expression pathways in mice and man to maximize translational research between these two species. In 2013, I moved to Cairo, Egypt, where I am currently an associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology, at Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University. As Assistant Professor of microbiology, I worked in several collaborations on vaccine optimization by combining multiple vaccines e.g. HPV and rubella vaccines (Gohar et al. 2019), formulating a low-cost vaccine for diarrheagenic E. coli (Gohar et al. 2016) or optimizing adjuvant systems for hepatitis B vaccine (AbdelAllah et al. 2016). One of my research interests is studying immunological and differential responses to hepatitis C virus (HCV), a health and economic burden in Egypt. This included studying cytokine responses in Schistosoma mansoni co-infection with HCV (Eid et al. 2017) and studying cytokine profiles of HCV chronic patients in comparison to high risk and healthy control groups (Rafik et al. 2017). In addition to my ongoing research on studying of the pharmacogenetics of HCV new direct acting antivirals. I was awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science (FWIS) Levant And Egypt Fellowship Award in 2014, followed by the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science (FWIS) International Rising Talent Award in 2015. In 2018/2019, I was awarded Cairo University Junior Faculty Encouragement Award.