Abdulaziz Al-Homaid is a Software Engineer at Qatar Computing Research Institute of Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He has been working on leveraging insights from hospital health data. Specifically, he applied signal processing algorithms to detect abnormalities in electrocardiogram data during vigorous activity. He also worked on analyzing the relationship between exercise and glucose levels. He is experienced in utilizing libraries for large language models and training them on multi-GPU machines.

Ms. Dodia has been a committed member of Qatar Foundation since 2012. She's been actively involved with several research groups in QCRI since 2014, currently serving as a full-time researcher for the cybersecurity group. 

Her vision is to serve Qatar and fuel the country's cybersecurity intelligence and R&D advancements with the knowledge and skills she's acquired over the years.

Dr. Mingzhan Xue obtained his Medical degree (Bachelor of Medicine), Master’s degree in Medical Genetics, and PhD in Medicine from the School of Medicine of Xi’an Jiaotong University (known as the Xi’an Medical University before 2000) in China. Between 1984 and 1999, he was appointed Assistant Professor, Lecturer, and Associate Professor in Medical Genetics at Xi’an Medical University, China. He also undertook postdoctoral positions at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and Newcastle University and Queen Mary University of London in the UK. From 2006 to 2018, he worked as a research fellow at the University of Warwick in the UK.

Dr Ayman Al Haj Zen is an Associate Professor at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Paris VII, where he studied the role of small proteoglycans in regulating vascular repair and atherosclerosis. Afterward, he moved to England and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at various institutions, including the London Research Institute, the University of Bristol, and the University of Oxford. During this time, he focused on studying the role of cell-cell communication signaling in ischemia-induced angiogenesis and vascular regeneration.

In 2013, Dr. Al Haj Zen received an intermediate research fellowship from the British Heart Foundation (Oxford) Centre of Research Excellence allowing him to establish his independent research program in vascular biology and drug discovery at the University of Oxford. His research centered on identifying new therapeutic targets and strategies to modulate angiogenesis and vascular response in diseases such as ischemic vascular disease, atherosclerosis, vascular dementia, and cancer.

His lab develops 3D microfluidics organ-on-chip disease models combined with high throughput quantitative image-based approaches to conduct genetic and drug screens that have applications in understanding underlying disease mechanisms and developing new therapeutics and personalized medicines.

Aisha Al-Qahtani holds a B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Texas A&M University, an M.S. degree in biological and biomedical science and  Ph.D. in biological & biomedical science from (Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Her research focuses on applying electrical engineering in the biomedical field; she was among the team that worked on the biosensor design in smart sensor design at HBKU. She has recently expanded her scope of research to focus more on computational biology in the Center for Artificial Intelligence at Qatar Computing Research Institute.
 

Mallika is currently a Business Support Officer at the College of Health And Life Sciences, and she has developed strong management abilities while working in such a dynamic environment. 

Before joining CHLS in 2015, Mallika worked as a Program Assistant at the Executive Education Centre, where she was seconded to HEC Paris in Qatar. She has also worked within the Registrar’s Office and the Provost’s Office at HBKU. Following graduation, she came to Qatar to work as an inflight supervisor for Qatar Airways.

Mallika is active in the community and volunteers her time at local animal shelters.

Omar Muhammad Khan is an Assistant Professor at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Dr. Khan completed his Master's in Biochemistry from Karachi University, Pakistan before moving to Sweden where he did a Masters in Molecular Cell Biology from Uppsala University, and then a PhD in the lab of Prof. Martin Bergo, a protein lipidation expert. In Bergo's lab, he identified the biochemical importance of the protein lipidation enzyme GGTase-I in immune cell function. He refuted the popular idea that GGTase-I can be a therapeutic target against inflammatory conditions. 

After finishing his PhD, he moved to The Francis Crick Institute (London) in Dr. Axel Behrens's Lab, where he worked on identifying the posttranslational regulators of a tumor suppressor protein FBW7 and mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance in cancer. Dr Khan’s postdoc work highlighted the importance of protein ubiquitylation and protein turnover in colorectal cancer. He found that FBW7 which is a tumor suppressor, is posttranslationally downregulated in several colorectal cancers. These findings challenge the popular belief that only somatic loss of function mutations can contribute to cancer development.

Dr. Nady El Hajj is an Associate Professor at the College of Health and Life Science at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He joined Hamad Bin Khalifa University in 2019 as an Assistant Professor. Dr. El Hajj graduated in biology from the American University of Beirut in 2007 and received his PhD from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Würzburg in 2011. His dissertation work investigated the epigenetic risks of assisted reproductive technologies and infertility on germ cells and embryos. During his postdoctoral training at the lab of Thomas Haaf, he focused on identifying whether maternal gestational diabetes during pregnancy causes epigenetic alterations in the developing fetus.

In addition, he was involved in studying paternal age effects on germ cells and the offspring of older fathers from an epigenetic perspective. In 2017, he joined Baylor College of Medicine on a fellowship supported by the German research foundation where he performed bioinformatics analysis on whole genome bisulfite sequencing data to understand interindividual DNA methylation variation in humans. His research is published in more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and has been cited more than 3700 times.

Dr. Hibah Shaath obtained her Bachelor of Science (Hons) and Master of Research (MRes) degrees in Genetics and Genetic Medicine from the University of Manchester. The focus of her MRes was the biomolecular characterization of Keratoconic corneas associated with transplant rejection. In 2013 she moved to Qatar and joined Shafallah Medical Genetics Center, where her main focus was identifying candidate genes with novel mutations associated with both Mendelian hereditary disease and ASD, through homozygosity mapping and family screening, presented in several posters at ARC’13 and ARC’14. In 2014, Dr. Shaath joined QBRI to work as a Research Associate in the Translational Oncology Research Center. In 2022, she completed her PhD in Biomedical and Biological Sciences from the College of Health and Life Sciences (CHLS) at HBKU under the supervision of Dr. Nehad Alajez. Her research focus is on the transcriptional landscape of colorectal cancer and breast cancer for novel biomarker discovery and targeted therapy. Her research was selected for oral presentation at the first Advances in Precision Medicine (APM 2021) conference at HBKU, and in 2022; her poster was selected for Best Poster Award in the student category as the third place winner at HBKU Research Day.

Dr. Emad El-Din Shahin is a professor and former dean of HBKU’s College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Qatar Foundation (2016-2022). Before joining CIS, he was the Hasib Sabbagh Distinguished Visiting Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies, a visiting professor of Political Science at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics. 

Dr. Shahin holds a PhD (1989) from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and an MA (1983) and a BA (1980) from the American University in Cairo. He has taught in leading universities in the United States, including Harvard, Notre Dame, Georgetown, George Washington, and Boston Universities. He also taught at Al-Akhawayn University in Morocco.

His research and teaching interests focus on Islam and Politics, Comparative Politics, Democracy, and Political Reform in Muslim societies. Dr. Shahin has authored, co-authored, and co-edited six books and has more than 50 scholarly publications including journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. His publications include Political Ascent: Contemporary Islamic Movements in North Africa (1998), co-editorship with Nathan Brown of The Struggle over Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (2010); and co-authorship of Islam and Democracy (2005 in Arabic). He is the editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics (2014) and co-editor with John L. Esposito of The Oxford Handbook of Islam and Politics (2013); Key Islamic Political Thinkers (Oxford University Press, 2018); and Islam and Politics around the World (Oxford University Press, 2018).

Dr. Shahin was nominated for the Harvard University Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize two years in a row, in May 2007 and May 2008, and is the recipient of the AUC Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award for the Academic Year 2001–2002.