On February 27th, Prof. Ashraf Khalil, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Dubai Pharmacy College for Girls, Dubai Medical University, delivered a research seminar titled “An overview of the discovery of a novel potential triple-negative breast cancer therapy”.
The session was attended by faculty members from the Pharmaceutical Sciences Department, candidates from the Master’s in Drug Discovery and Development program, and PharmD students enrolled in the scholarly pathway.
Prof. Khalil, obtained his PhD in Organic/Medicinal Chemistry from the School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi (USA) in 1997. Over the years, he has held esteemed academic and research positions globally, including at Virginia State University and Polytechnic Institute, Analytical Biochemistry Laboratories in Columbia, Missouri, as well as King Saud University, King Faisal University, and Qatar University. Throughout his career, Prof. Khalil published numerous peer-reviewed papers, securing three US patents, and receiving research funds exceeding AED 3 million. His primary research focus is on designing innovative anticancer agents and exploring potential treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
During the seminar, Prof. Khalil provided a comprehensive overview of the dynamic pathway of research, detailing essential stages such as hypothesis formulation, laboratory execution, data analysis, evaluation, and subsequent patent filing or publication. He specifically elaborated on the synthesis of 14 novel compounds aimed at treating breast cancer, highlighting key processes including structural elucidation studies, general screening for identifying the most promising compounds, and evaluating their effects on colony formation, cell proliferation, carcinogenesis, and angiogenesis studies conducted through in silico, in vitro, and in vivo assays.
The session concluded with an engaging discussion on the future avenues following patent receipt and the overall drug discovery and development process. Attendees actively participated in deliberating the challenges and opportunities in translating research innovations into viable therapeutic solutions.