The National Centre for Health Research (NCHR), a division of the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), organized the country’s first Health and Medical Research Conference 2022 in priority research areas identified in the National Health Research Strategy 2021. The Conference was held from December 5 – 6, 2022 at Inter-Continental Hotel Dubai, Festival City, Dubai, UAE. Gulf Medical University was among the strategic partners of the conference.
The conference’s primary purpose was to encourage researchers across the UAE to disseminate their work in health and medical research, aiming to enhance the growth of national capabilities in health research and improve the national performance KPIs.
Prof. Salem Chouaib, Cancer Immunologist, Director of Thumbay Research Institute of Precision Medicine (TRIPM), GMU and Vice Chancellor Research was one of the Scientific Committee members of this prestigious conference. Prof. Salem is rated as the 2nd Top Researcher in UAE and among the top 2% scientists worldwide according to the Meta Research Innovation Center at Stanford (METRICS), Stanford University, USA.
Research track and Academic track faculty from the College of Medicine, Gulf Medical University, participated in a big way with oral and poster presentations in various research domains. Following is the list of some of the titles presented:
- Chronic hypoxia is associated with transcriptomic reprogramming and increased genomic instability in cancer cells (Dr. Raefa Abou Khouzam, Research Scientist, TRIPM)
- Pathway-based analysis and artificial intelligence reveals metabolic subtypes of clinical relevance in breast cancer (Dr. Mohammad Askandar Iqbal, Research Scientist, TRIPM)
- Role of the hypoxic secretome in including stemness and cell survival in normoxic lung cancer cell lines (Dr. Rania Zarour, Research Scientist, TRIPM)
- The epigenetic marker “P16” and cell cycle regulator “CDCA5”: role in the diagnosis and pathogenesis of HCC in Egyptian patients (Dr. Dalia Ali Gaber, Specialty – Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
- Effect of SARS-COV-2 infection on D-Dimer among Thumbay Hospital patients with and without co-morbidities (Dr. Nelofar Sami Khan, Specialty – Biochemistry)
- Impact of COVID19 on the mental health of healthcare workers in a hospital in Sharjah, UAE (Dr. Jayakumary Muttappallymyalil, Specialty – Community Medicine)
- Effects of Atorvastatin on the growth of Candida Auris from human isolate (Dr. Salma Naqvi, Specialty – Pharmacology)
“Research remains as one of our strategic directions and our research focus is on cancer, infectious diseases (COVID-19), diabetes, public health and health professions education which also aligns with the country’s direction. Gulf Medical University is proud to be one of the universities with the highest number of publications in the field of health professions education in the country and the region”, said Prof. Manda Venkatramana, Vice Chancellor Academics and Dean, College of Medicine, as a matter of fact.