Faculty

Dr. Hala Mohtaseb 

Dr. Mohtaseb was recently awarded a grant from the Qatar National Research Foundation in the amount of 1Million USD as the PI for the project entitled: " Zinc-dependent regulation of the cell cycle regulator Cdc25 as a potential anti-cancer target” which will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Khaled Machaca at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (as Lead PI) and Dr. Olga Boudker from Weill Medical College-New York (as Co-PI). 
She was also awarded a grant from the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) amounting to more than 150,000Euros in collaboration with Dr. Regine Schneider-Stock at the University of Erlangen to study the clinical potential of thymoquinone in cancer.

Research Interests
My research interests are in the field of cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy, particularly in what relates to the study of plant-derived compounds. Research in my laboratory has focused on: Inhibition of mechanisms involved in the initiation and promotion stages of UV carcinogenesis; inhibition of mechanisms involved in chemically induced colon cancer; and exploration of novel chemopreventive compounds for inhibiting chemical carcinogenesis. In the area of chemoprevention research, we have examined naturally occuring plant tannins, vitamin E, essential oils of the Lebanese sage plant. thymoquinone extract from black seed and extracts from Lebanese indigenous plants, all of which are ingested regularly by humans and thus may hold promise as anticancer agents. Lately, I have been interested in evaluating hypoxic cytotoxic agents, anti-angiogenic drugs and radiation modifier compounds in an attempt to study the interplay between tumor hypoxia, radiosensitization and angiogenesis. My efforts have been directed towards understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of various anticancer agents using cellular biology techniques as well as an emerging array of molecular technologies.

CV

Research:
Publications
Grants

Courses:
BIOL 250
BIOL 268
BIOL 338
BIOL 363