Ilham Yahya Abdi studied at the University of Westminster in London, U.K, where she completed her B.S.c in Biomedical Sciences in 2014, and her M.Sc. in Medical Molecular Sciences in 2015. For her M.Sc. research project, she studied the ‘Regulatory effects of estrogen on microglia function and behavior’. After her studies, Ilham completed a 3-month rotational training program at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Pathology laboratories in Doha, in January 2018. She then continued her training at HMC were she was involved in a voluntary research internship at the Interim Translational Research Institute (iTRI) that she completed in April 2018. There she worked on various projects involving epidermal inflammation and the effects of various therapeutic agents on cutaneous inflammation under the supervision of Dr. Joerg Buddenkote. 

Ilham joined QBRI in July 2018 as a Research Assistant in Dr. Omar El Agnaf’s team. Her research interests lie in the field of neurological disorders, in particular, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, and developing diagnostic tools for them. Her current research project is developing immunoassays and discovering novel biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.

Rim Abdul Kader Bacha is currently studying for a Master's degree in Biomedical and Biological Sciences at the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences from the College of Health Science, Qatar University. Rim received an honors for her undergraduate research project entitled “Vitamin D deficiency and oxidative stress”. Moreover, during her undergraduate studies, Rim enrolled in the undergraduate research program working on a project entitled “The Association of the Serotonin Transporter Gene Polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and Major Depression in Qatar“. Through an internship at Hamad Medical Corporation, Rim has acquired clinical laboratory skills in haematology, immunology and clinical chemistry.

Rim recently joined Dr.Julie Decock’s team as an MSc student, where she will conduct her research work into the mechanistic basis of immune evasion in triple negative breast cancer with a particular focus on the cancer testis antigen PRAME.

Ghaneya Al Khadairi is currently pursuing her PhD in Biomedical and Biological Sciences at the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She holds a BSc in Biomedical Sciences (Qatar University) and completed her MSc in Biomedical and Biological Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in 2017. Ghaneya was awarded a competitive graduate scholarship from the Qatar Research Leadership Program (QRLP) of Qatar Foundation, to pursue her doctoral research work as part of Dr Julie Decock’ s team.

Her PhD work focuses on the cancer testis antigen PRAME, also known as PReferentially expressed Antigen in MElanoma, and its role in the inherent aggressive behavior of triple negative breast cancer by facilitating the acquisition of several hallmarks of cancer. Findings from this project will enable us to assess whether PRAME has potential to be used as a candidate therapeutic target for triple negative breast cancer.

Ms. Asma Elashi received her Bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Qatar University in 2017. Her research work as an undergraduate student was in cancer and her research project entitled, Investigating the effect of PRMT5 on Breast cell proliferation through β-CATENIN target gene expression. Her graduation project focused on molecular and in vitro studies in breast cancer.

Ms. Elashi is currently pursuing her Master’s in biomedical and biological science, at HBKU. She is interested to continue her research in cancer and immunotherapy. Her work now is focused on breast and colorectal cancer, as these cancers result in high mortality worldwide. Ms. Elashi’s research involves gene expression and epigenetic medications of many immune checkpoints and their associations with the aforementioned type of cancers.

Ms. Samia Ltaief obtained her Master's degree in Research in Life Sciences, specializing in Microbiology and Molecular Epidemiology from Sciences University of Tunis in January 2013. Her project was focused on the adaptation of BHK-21 cells in suspension culture and the study of their capacity for replication of the rabies virus. She carried out her project in the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology, Biotechnology and Vaccine Development at the Pasteur Institute, Tunisia; she was supervised by Dr. Hella Kallel. Following the completion of her Master's degree, Ms. Ltaief worked as a Senior Lab Technician at a private medical laboratory in Tunisia for one year. She then moved to the XEN Lab of Dermocosmetic products in Tunisia in May 2014 and worked as a Quality Manager for one year. In February 2018, she joined National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) in HMC in Qatar as a trainee, learning various immunological techniques.

Currenlty Ms. Ltaief works in QBRI as a senior research associate. Her research interest is focused on studying the role of the immune system among those with autism spectrum disorder and its correlation with neuronal phenotypes under the supervision of Dr. Abeer Al-Shammari.

Dr. Wesal holds a Bachelor’s in Medical Laboratory Sciences, a Master’s in Diagnostic Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, a Doctorate in Business Administration, and has a rich background in medical research and administration. Formerly a teaching assistant at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST), she contributed as a research and laboratory supervisor, specializing in DNA extraction, mutation screening, and forensic gene scanning. Subsequently, she was a senior research associate at the Shafallah Medical Genetics Center, Doha, leading projects in the areas of genetics, Autism, and Exome Sequencing research.

In 2014, Dr. Wesal joined Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), focusing on identifying mutations for Intellectual Disability. Currently, her work delves into molecular biology and biomarker identification in Autism. It centers on studying the properties of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and CRISPR-CAS9 of people on the Autism spectrum, exploring characteristics of cells differentiated into cortical neurons. Dr. Wesal's extensive expertise contributes significantly to cutting-edge research in neurological disorders.

Maha Al-Thani is a Research Fellow at Qatar Biomedical Research Center. Her primary research focus is human iPSC disease modeling and neurovascular unit co-culture. She received her PhD in Clinical Neurosciences from the University of Cambridge, and her dissertation “hiPSC-Derived Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Models”, published in 2023, was centered around blood-brain barrier modeling that led to novel hiPSC-derived models of the cerebral Small Vessel Disease variants COL4A1/2 and HTRA1. These models were later used in a drug-screening collaboration with AstraZeneca. The project was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Alzheimer’s Association, Stroke Association and Medical Research Foundation.

Safa Salim graduated with a major in Biological Sciences and minor in Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University Qatar in 2017. She joined the Biological and Biomedical Sciences program in Hamad Bin Khalifa University to obtain her Masters and PhD.

During her undergraduate studies, Safa was involved in several research projects, which include: examining gene expression in development and regeneration of the sea star Patiria Miniata at Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh, USA; analyzing the role of DNAJB3/HSP-40 co-chaperone in regulating glucose homeostasis and insulin signaling at QBRI; comparing the protein profiles of Arthrobacter Phage (Sand Phage) and Mycobacterium Smegmatis Phage (Soil Phage) at Carnegie Mellon University Qatar; and expressing, purifying, and characterizing the transcription factors Sox7 and Sox17 HMG domain and its mutant at QBRI.

Muneera Fayyad has earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and her Master's degree in Biomedical and Biological Sciences from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in 2017. She is currently pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Prof. El-Agnaf and is working on developing and characterizing antibodies as research tools to study Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.

Dr. Vaikath has a PhD in medical science from Lund University, Sweden, specializing in neuroscience within the faculty of medicine. Prior to that, he gained five years of experience in India's biotech industry. During this period, his work focused on the expression and purification of recombinant proteins linked to diseases such as HIV and HCV for diagnostic applications. He then transitioned to the antibody development team, eventually leading a group dedicated to monoclonal and polyclonal antibody development targeting various peptides and proteins associated with cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorders.

Following his industry tenure, he joined the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at United Arab Emirates University. There, his focus shifted to generating and characterizing monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies against proteins implicated in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

In 2016, he joined Qatar Biomedical Research Institute as a research associate. His work concentrated on designing conformation-specific antibodies to address alpha-synuclein pathology, advancing therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in synucleinopathies. Additionally, he has contributed to the development and characterization of nanobodies tailored to combat diverse pathogenic protein variants in neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, he serves as a senior research associate. His focus remains on antibody and nanobody engineering, emphasizing enhanced delivery across biological barriers, notably the blood-brain barrier.