On Sunday, September 27th, the college of pharmacy hosted a research seminar by Dr. Noha Ahmed Osman, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, German University in Cairo (GUC). Dr. Noha earned her doctoral degree in the field of Medicinal/Pharmaceutical Chemistry, from the GUC in collaboration with Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, in 2015.
The talk focused on some of Dr. Noha’s research work on endocannabinoids. She presented the story that led to the emerging need for endocannabinoid-like ligands that are effective yet selective to the type-2 cannabinoid receptors that play various regulatory roles and most importantly in pain, inflammation, and neurodegenerative disorders. She showed the results of the synthetic outcome of these lead compounds having suggested roles in either the management of neurodegenerative disorders or as CNS tracers in PET scanning.
After the talk and during the Q&A session, several of our Master in Drug Discovery & Development (MDD) students had a fruitful discussion with Dr. Noha about her research and the criteria for selection of her lead compounds.
Dr. Ahmed Thabet, the director of the MDD program and chair of the department of pharmaceutical sciences commented: “It is always a pleasure to have elite speakers in our MDD seminar series especially those who have a scope of work that can positively impact the current research trends at the college of pharmacy”.
Prof. Sherief Khalifa, Dean of the College of Pharmacy commented: “Having international speakers like Dr. Noha is an eye opener for both our undergraduate and postgraduate students and it serves to stimulate their appetite for research in drug discovery. It also opens doors for research collaboration with our faculty at GMU and helps us achieve or mission to advance research that improves human health”.