Dr. Nayef A. Mazloum is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1994 and completed his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at New York Medical College in Valhalla in 2003.

Dr. Nayef A. Mazloum worked as an instructor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. He did his postdoctoral training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and worked at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q).

Dr. Mazloum’s research focuses on the molecular aspects of DNA repair mechanisms, the stability of the genome, and how the dysfunction of these regulatory pathways could lead to cancer, age-related or metabolic diseases.

His lab employs cellular, molecular, and genetic tools to investigate altered molecular pathways in metabolic disorders and cancer. Dr. Mazloum actively collaborates with local stakeholders in Qatar, including Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar University, Texas A&M University, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He also collaborates with global investigators at Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Brown University, and the University of East Anglia.

Dr. Said Dermime obtained his PhD degree in immunology from Salford University, Manchester, UK in 1992. In 2015, Dr. Said joined NCCCR at HMC, Doha, Qatar as a director of the Translational Cancer Research Facility. Dr. Said Dermime is an adjunct associate professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa. He is also a mentor supervisor of PhD/master’s programs; he supervised 3 PhD and 2 master’s students.

Dr. Said published over 88 peer-reviewed articles in high impact factor journals. He also published several Book Chapters in prestigious publishers and is an editor/reviewer for many prestigious international scientific journals. Dr Said’s most prominent work includes identifying the cause of resistance to the drug retinoic acid in acute leukemia, discovering a novel leukemia vaccine against proteinase-3 as a target antigen and demonstrating that the lymphoma idiotype is a potential cancer vaccine target. He has also demonstrated, for the first time, the expression of the PD-L1 inhibitory molecule in breast cancer patients, showed direct evidence of PD-L1 induction in breast cancer cells and the involvement of both PD-L1 and regulatory T cells in the immune escape of breast cancer.

In addition, he was able to discover an antigen-specific regulatory T cell population in leukemia patients. Recently, he was able to demonstrate that the presence of anti-NY-ESO-1 integrated immunity and a specific cytokines/chemokines profile may potentially identify a response to PD-1 blockade in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients. He was also able to show that a patient with metastatic gastric cancer benefiting from combined radio-immunotherapy treatment possesses persistent anti-NY-ESO-1 specific T cells and expresses differential biomarkers. 

Professor Martin Steinhoff is a Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He is also the Chairman of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Director of the Dermatology Institute, and Director of the Translational Research Institute (TRI) at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). He is also a Full Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College New York, USA, Weill-Cornell Medicine-Qatar, and Qatar University. He also holds the position of residency program director for dermatology at HMC.

Professor Steinhoff studied medicine and human biology in Germany, where he received his MD, M.Sc., and PhD from the University of Marburg. After his residency in Dermatology/Venereology, he became an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the University of Muenster in 2002, promoted from assistant to full professor in 6 years.

He holds board certificates in Dermatology, Venereology, Phlebology and Allergy. His clinical fields of interest are inflammatory skin diseases, translational medicine, and -omics technologies. Prof. Steinhoff is an established physician-scientist with a long-standing basic and clinical research background. His group has discovered several mechanisms that are now the basis for new therapies for skin diseases. He is the author of the most relevant textbooks for Dermatology on Skin Inflammation and Allergy.

For his research, Prof Steinhoff received several prestigious international research awards worldwide. He was a member of the board of directors of the European Society of Dermatology Research (ESDR) and an honorary member of several Societies for Dermatology. According to a publication in 2023, he was considered among the Top 1% of dermatologists worldwide.

Sahar Isa Da’as is a distinguished research manager at Sidra Medicine and an assistant professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. Her research is centered on functional genomics and translational research. She has worked at IWK Health Centre in Canada, focusing on rare genetic disorders and childhood cancers. She was also awarded the Innovation Excellence Award from Cancer Care Nova Scotia Health Authority.

Dr. Da'as has pioneered innovative approaches using the zebrafish model, focusing on rare pediatric hereditary diseases. She has successfully developed patient-specific genotype models, providing a comprehensive insight into gene variation, clinical presentations, and disease prognosis. This achievement promises a roadmap toward precision medicine and underscores her dedication to advancing healthcare through cutting-edge research.

Through collaborative projects, Dr Da'as continues translating scientific discoveries into practical applications, providing a foundation for translational studies of novel genes and variants. Her work is published in many reputable journals and has significantly advanced the understanding of hereditary diseases.

Dr. Said Ismail is the director of the Qatar Genome Programme (QGP), one of the major national programs in the region. He obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Oxford and has work experience extending into various fields including research, education, and consultancy. 

As a research fellow at University College London (UCL), Dr. Ismail served as a consultant to several regional and international pharma and biotech companies. 

Dr. Ismail is especially interested in promoting research among young students and researchers in the Arab world. He launched one of the largest efforts to enhance the Arabic medical and scientific content on the internet; The “Bel-Arabi” or “In- Arabic” initiative. He is also a board member of the Phi Science Institute, which aims to spread creative sciences and research among youth.

Dr. Sara obtained her medical degree with excellence from Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, receiving several honors during her studies. She later completed her Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Hamad bin Khalifa University in 2019. The focus of her Ph.D. was on the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and human pluripotent stem cell technologies in monogenic disorders. Dr. Sara has successfully published multiple high-impact publications in the field of pluripotent stem cell technology and NGS. Dr. Sara is an alumna of Harvard Medical School where she completed the Cancer Biology and Therapeutics (CBT) program during her postdoctoral fellowship with a special focus on melanoma, immunotherapy, and immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Dr. Sara further completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Clinical Research Center in Sidra Medicine-Qatar focusing on mesenchymal stem cells isolated from adipose tissue (2015-2018). Dr. Sara joined the dermatology and venereology residency program at HMC in 2018 and served as the chief resident in 2020. Dr. Al-khawaga is currently leading the GeriDerm (Geriatric Dermatology Service) and the lead for the first National Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS)/Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) in Qatar. Dr. Sara received the National Educational Excellence in Research, an award from His Highness The Amir Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani in 2021, and was awarded the Regional Research award from The Arab Board in 2023, a highly competitive award from the Middle East. Dr. Sarah has recently been appointed as a professor in the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation.
 

Laith Abu-Raddad is an adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the College of Health and Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He also serves as a professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University in Qatar. His expertise lies in infectious disease epidemiology, focusing on quantitative methods like mathematical modeling and biostatistics.

He has led several high-impact studies at the international and regional levels. He has published over 390 publications with a citation h-index of 97 and over 110,000 citations. His scientific research has been published in journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Lancet Microbe, JAMA, Nature Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, Nature Communications, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Hepatology, BMC Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, and AIDS.

He has been the principal investigator of several projects funded by various funding agencies and has acted as an expert advisor and consultant for several international organizations. His research work has been key in the formulation of public health policy at the regional and international levels. The findings of his research studies have received coverage in international media such as Aljazeera, the New York Times, the BBC, and the Economist.