DISEASE MODELING AND THERAPEUTICS

Dr. Essam Abdelalim

Conference Chair

Dr. Abdelalim is a Principal Investigator at Sidra Medicine, where he leads the Laboratory of Pluripotent Stem Cell Disease Modeling. He earned his PhD in Medical Science from Shiga University of Medical Science in Japan. Subsequently, he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship and assumed the role of Assistant Professor at the same University. Before joining Sidra, he held the position of Senior Scientist at QBRI until February 2024. Notably, he established Qatar’s first pluripotent stem cell program focused to diabetes research. His team successfully generated multiple iPSC lines from healthy and diseased individuals and developed advanced protocols to enhance the differentiation of stem cells into pancreatic islets, insulin-target cells, and other cell types. He played a key role as Chair of the HSCI-QBRI Steering Committee Agreement, coordinating collaborative efforts between the HSCI and QBRI in stem cell and diabetes research. Also, Dr. Abdelalim serves on the editorial boards of “Stem Cells Translational Medicine” and “Stem Cells and Development”. He has authored over 75 peer-reviewed articles and has received numerous research grants and honors for his contributions to the field. Dr. Abdelalim also holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor at HBKU, where he teaches “Stem Cell Biology” and mentors graduate students.

Dr. Luis Saraiva

Conference Chair

In 2004, Luis concluded an integrated B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Biology at the University of Evora and the Gulbenkian Institute of Science in Portugal. Luis advanced to a Ph.D. in Genetics at the International Graduate School in Genetics and Functional Genomics of the University of Cologne (Germany), graduating summa cum laude in 2008. Next, his academic journey took him to Harvard Medical School as a visiting scientist, funded by the Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds, followed by his first postdoctoral appointment at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (USA). In 2013, he received the EBI–Sanger Postdoctoral (ESPOD) Fellowship, which led him to continue his postdoctoral training at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridge (UK), where he also earned a Sanger Early Career Innovation Award.

In 2015, he joined Sidra Medicine (Qatar), where he is currently based, leading the Human Disease Modeling and Therapeutics Laboratory and the Congenital Malformations Clinical Research Program. He served as Adjunct Faculty at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (USA) from 2016-2023, has been a Joint Professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University (Qatar) since 2018, and an Associate Professor Adjunct at Yale University (USA) since 2024.

Dr. Hilal A. Lashuel

Qatar Foundation & Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar

Prof. Hilal Lashuel is the Research Development and Innovation Advisor to the Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, Executive Director of RDI at the Chairperson’s Office, Director of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology of Neurodegeneration at EPFL, and CSO of ND BioSciences. His research focuses on understanding protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases to develop innovative diagnostics and therapies. A PhD graduate from Texas A&M University and the Scripps Research Institute, he held postdoctoral positions at Harvard Medical School before joining EPFL in 2005. He also completed a sabbatical as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University’s Department of Neurological Sciences. Prof. Lashuel has published over 226 peer-reviewed articles, holds nine patents, and has over 30,000 citations (h-index: 93). His work has received funding from prestigious organizations, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, European Research Council (ERC), and partnerships with major biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He has held key leadership roles in Qatar, including Executive Director of Qatar Biomedical Research and advisory roles in the Qatar Genome Project and Biobank, Qatar Foundation, and Hamad Medical Corporations. Recognized globally, he is a recipient of the Kuwait Prize, Takreem Scientific Achievement Award, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Matthias Hebrok

Technical University Munich (TUM), Germany

Professor Matthias Hebrok holds the Chair for Applied Stem Cell and Organoid Systems at the Technical University, Munich (TUM). He also serves as the inaugural Director of the Center for Organoid Systems (COS) at the TUM, and as the Director of the Institute for Diabetes and Organoid Technology (IDOT) at Helmholtz Munich.  Prior to moving to Munich in 2022, he served as the Director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  His group has made seminal contributions to the fields of pancreas organ development, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. The overarching goal of his work is to build and optimize functional replicas of human insulin-producing beta cells from human stem cell to enable cell therapies for patients with diabetes. He has advised prominent academic Diabetes Centers, served on the SAB of several biotech and stem cell companies, and co-founded a company developing novel nanosensors to monitor activities of stem cell derived transplants in patients.

Bezard, INSERM Research Director (DRCE), has authored or co-authored over 350 professional publications in neurobiology, most of which are on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Listed among the most cited neuroscientists (Top 1%, Clarivate 2022 ranking; H factor= 102 – Google Scholar), he is known for his work on the compensatory mechanisms that mask the progression Parkinson's disease, the pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesia, the intimate mechanisms of cell death in Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy, the modelling of these diseases progression and the development of new strategies to alleviate symptoms and/or to slow these diseases progression.

Dr. Sonja Schrepfer

Sana Biotechnology, USA

Work by Dr. Sonja Schrepfer is at the forefront of stem immunobiology and paves the way for treatment of a wide range of diseases – from supporting functional recovery of failing myocardium to the derivation of other cell types to treat diabetes, blindness, cancer, lung, neurodegenerative, and related diseases. Her work demonstrates that protecting transplanted cells from immune rejection is the key to unlocking the potential of regenerative medicine. Dr. Schrepfer is Professor at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center (in the Departments of Surgery and Regenerative Medicine) and a Scientific Founder and SVP (Head of the Hypoimmune Platform) of Sana Biotechnology, Inc.

Dr. Shuibing Chen

Weill Cornell Medicine, USA

Dr. Shuibing Chen is the Kilts Family Professor and Vice Chair of Innovation in the Department of Surgery, and Director of the Center for Genomic Health at Weill Cornell Medicine. The major research interest in the Chen Laboratory focuses on human pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids for disease modeling and drug screening. They have used a CRISPR-based gene editing approach to precisely knock out genes or knock in single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with common diseases. The disease modeling platform will be adapted to a high-throughput format to perform drug discovery and identify gene/allele-specific drugs.

Dr. Rickie Patani

The Francis Crick Institute, UK

Rickie Patani is a Neurologist and Cell Biologist. He trained in Neurology in the UK including in UCL Queen Square and Addenbrooke's, Cambridge. He obtained a PhD and post-doctoral experience in Cambridge University and set up his lab at UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in 2013. He moved to the Francis Crick Institute in 2017. In 2018, Rickie was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). He was appointed full Professor at UCL in 2019. Rickie recently left his role as a Senior Group Leader at the Francis Crick Institute as he was appointed Director of the Neurobiology Programme at NUS Life Sciences Institute and Professor of Neuroscience at NUS in the Departments of Medicine and Anatomy.

Rickie’s Lab is passionately committed to understanding neurodegenerative disorders in order to uncover new therapies. His team work primarily on the themes of RNA metabolism and cellular autonomy in ALS/FTD using human induced pluripotent stem cell models as a primary discovery platform.

Dr. Erwan Bezard

University of Bordeaux, France

Bezard, INSERM Research Director (DRCE), has authored or co-authored over 350 professional publications in neurobiology, most of which are on Parkinson's disease and related disorders. Listed among the most cited neuroscientists (Top 1%, Clarivate 2022 ranking; H factor= 102 – Google Scholar), he is known for his work on the compensatory mechanisms that mask the progression Parkinson's disease, the pathophysiology of levodopa-induced dyskinesia, the intimate mechanisms of cell death in Parkinson’s disease and Multiple System Atrophy, the modelling of these diseases progression and the development of new strategies to alleviate symptoms and/or to slow these diseases progression. Bezard founded in 2010 and headed until 2020, a CNRS research unit in Bordeaux (France), the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases, which features preclinical and clinical researchers working towards developing therapeutic solutions. He has served or sat on the boards of international organisations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation and Parkinson’s UK. He is editor-in-chief of Neurobiology of Disease and he serves on the editorial boards of several other neurobiology journals. Besides consulting for several drug companies in movement disorders, he is a CSO of Motac Neuroscience (France-UK-China) and co-founder of Treefrog Therapeutics (France) & SE Therapeutics (France).

Dr. Amber L. Alhadeff

University of Pennsylvania, USA

Dr. Amber Alhadeff is an Associate Member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where her neuroscience lab investigates gut-brain signaling and the control of food intake. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania in the labs of Drs. Harvey Grill and Matthew Hayes, investigating how hindbrain neuroendocrine signals impact feeding behavior. As a postdoc in the lab of Dr. Nick Betley at Penn, she examined how gastrointestinal signals affect activity in hunger circuits, and how these hunger circuits influence behavioral responses to competing survival needs. The Alhadeff lab, established in 2020, combines in vivo techniques with advanced microscopy, behavioral, and surgical approaches to examine how gut-brain signaling impacts behavior. This work focuses on the relationship between various feeding and metabolic centers in the brain, potentially providing insights into the etiology and treatment of diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Her latest research made the discovery that separate neural circuits mediate the weight loss effects versus aversive side effects of popular GLP-1-based medications.

Dr. Marcelo O. Dietrich

Yale University, USA

Marcelo O. Dietrich, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Comparative Medicine and of Neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine, where he joined the faculty in 2014 after earning his M.D. and Ph.D. from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul and further training at the Cajal Institute in Madrid and under Dr. Tamas Horvath at Yale. His research focuses on uncovering the complex interplay between neurobiology, metabolism, and behavior through the study of the development of homeostatic and emotional systems. Beyond academia, Marcelo loves open water swimming, especially the chill of ice-cold waters, reflecting his adventurous spirit and deep-seated curiosity that also drives his scientific endeavors.

Dr. Hao Yin

Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, China

Professor Hao Yin is the Vice President of Shanghai Changzheng Hospital and the Director of the Department of Organ Transplantation at Shanghai Changzheng Hospital. He also serves as the President of the Asian Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (APITA).

Clinical Achievements:

1. Has led the establishment of China’s foremost islet transplant center, having completed over 300 transplants to date, and is currently ranked first in Asia in terms of transplant volume and clinical outcomes.
2. Has pioneered the” Shanghai Technical System”, an innovative approach for islet isolation, preservation, and immunosuppressive protocols. This system has resolved long-standing clinical bottlenecks, significantly enhancing transplant success rates.
3. Being the principal author of clinical management protocols, quality control standards, and clinical guidelines for the Asian Islet Transplantation Society and the National Health Commission of China. These guidelines have been adopted by over 90% of islet transplantation centers in China, driving the rapid progress of islet transplantation in the country.

Research Interests:

1. Liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation
2. Islet transplantation for Type 1 Diabetes, End-Stage Diabetic Nephropathy, Post-pancreatectomy Diabetes
3. Stem cell and immune therapy for diabetes

Dr. David Lawrence Silver

Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Dr. Silver is Professor and Deputy Director in the Signature Research Program in Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disorders at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.  Dr. Silver obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics from Michigan State University, and postdoctoral training at Columbia University specializing in lipid biochemistry and lipoprotein metabolism. Prior to joining Duke-NUS in 2012, he served on the faculty of Columbia University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His long-standing research interests are in the areas of lipid storage, transport and metabolism with a translational focus in applying his laboratory’s discoveries to understanding mechanisms of disease.  Dr. Silver’s laboratory is multidisciplinary utilizing biochemistry, structural biology, molecular genetics, and molecular and cellular biology. Some of the lab’s notable discoveries include the FITM family of endoplasmic reticulum proteins, MFSD2a--a lysolipid transporter critical for human brain growth and SPNS1, a lysosomal lysolipid transporter important for phospholipid salvage and lysosomal function.

Dr. Margret Shirinian

American University of Beirut, Lebanon

I am a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology, and Microbiology at the Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut (AUB). My research examines how genomic and epigenomic factors—particularly histones, their modifications, and DNA methylation—impact brain development and cancer. My work on histone biology and oncohistone mechanisms has been published in top journals, including Nature Communications and Molecular Cell. A major focus of my lab is 3D genome organization and its role in gene regulation. We have contributed to understanding the function of TET DNA demethylases in development and neurobiology. Using Drosophila, we uncovered TET roles in midline glia organization, glial proliferation, axon guidance, and circadian regulation—published in eNeuro, Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, and Epigenetics. In cancer biology, I focus on therapeutic development. Recently, we began testing an epigenetic compound library in a Drosophila Glioblastoma (GBM) model. At AUB, I teach and mentor students from varied backgrounds and have supervised over 50 research projects. I also serve as Director of INSPIRE (Institute of Preclinical Innovation and Research), coordinating preclinical services and fostering academic development locally and regionally. My honors include the King Hussein Cancer Research Award, the QUWA Award for Women’s Empowerment in Research (UAE), the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada’s New Idea Award, the AUB Dean’s Excellence Award in Research, and multiple international grants.

Dr. Khaled Machaca

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar

Khaled Machaca is Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Commercialization for the Qatar campus. In that capacity he oversees the academic, financial, operational and compliance aspects of the research department, which currently encompasses about 200 researchers. Khaled oversaw the establishment of the administrative and regulatory infrastructure; centralized core laboratories; and faculty recruitment since 2009. He also serves as the designated institutional official for the animal research program and as the director of the imaging core. He leads and serves on multiple institutional, national, and international committees. The Machaca Lab is interested in intracellular signaling under physiological and pathological conditions with a focus on calcium signaling. Our goal is to better define signaling pathways at the cellular and molecular levels to identify potential therapeutic targets in various disease states. We are particularly interested in the role of calcium in cancer, metabolic, cardiovascular, and immune disfunction, as well as in oocyte maturation in preparation for fertilization. Work from the Machaca Lab has been published in leading biomedical journals and garnered continuous extramural funding from both the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF). Khaled serves of several editorial boards, reviews widely for scientific journals and granting agencies, and has an extensive track record of training students and postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Joep Beumer

Institute of Human Biology, Switzerland

Joep Beumer is a junior group leader at the Institute of Human Biology, Roche in Basel. He studied Biomedical Sciences at the University Utrecht, The Netherlands, where he graduated in 2015. In 2020, he received his PhD from the University Utrecht, working with Hans Clevers on the intestinal stem cell niche as well as on enteroendocrine cells. He joined the Institute of Human Biology in 2022, where his group is building high-throughput genetic perturbation strategies in adult organoid models to study homeostatic renewal as well as disease of the gastrointestinal epithelium. In addition, his group is using organoids to better understand nutrient uptake and the endocrine function of the gut.

Dr. Chiara Cugno

Sidra Medicine, Qatar

Dr. Cugno is a seasoned medical doctor with a Board Certification in Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pavia (Italy), and a Master in Pediatric Hematology at the University “La Sapienza”, Rome (Italy). She joined Sidra in 2014, where she covers the double role of Director of the Advanced Cell Therapy Core and Attending Physician in Pediatric Oncology and Hematology. In Italy, she has been directly involved in the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) activities at the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, a renowned Academic Health Center that has performed more than 2000 transplantations. At Sidra, Dr. Cugno has successfully established a state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice Facility for cell, gene therapy and regenerative medicine products. Moreover, she has been working on the establishment of the Clinical Program of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). Her research interests span from pediatric leukemias to pharmacogenomics, HSCT, Inherited Bone Marrow Failure Syndromes and Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.

Dr. M. Maya Kaelberer

University of Arizona, USA

Dr. Kaelberer is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona and an Adjunct Professor at Duke University. She is a sensory neuro-gastroenterologist. Her laboratory studies the connection between the brain and the gut. Their goal is to pioneer a new understanding of how the gut senses and responds to the complex composition of food, going beyond traditional calorie counting. Specifically, her research investigates the relationship between the vagus nerve and specialized gut sensory cells, called neuropod cells. Neuropod cells may hold the key to deciphering the "nutritional code" by which the gut identifies and reacts to various nutrients, shaping our food preferences and potentially influencing long-term health. Using a suite of cutting-edge techniques, they aim to map the diverse array of nutrient receptors and signaling pathways within neuropod cells, uncovering how these cells distinguish between different types of sugars, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. This research has profound implications for understanding how our bodies process food and could lead to innovative strategies for addressing diet-related diseases by targeting gut-brain communication pathways.

Dr. Mohammad Farhan

College of Health and Life Sciences, HBKU

Dr. Mohammad Farhan is an Associate Professor  at the College of Health & Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. His behavioral neuroscience research combines three interconnected approaches: identifying genes linked to neurological disorders through human genetics and genomics; designing targeted therapeutics using computational modeling; and validating findings in Drosophila models and human neuronal cell lines. His lab investigates mechanisms underlying autism, schizophrenia and cerebral palsy through QNRF, HBKU, and HMC-MRC-funded projects. Dr. Farhan's pioneering work on optogenetic inhibition techniques was published in Nature Methods and highlighted in scientific media. With experience at Oxford University, Duke-NUS Medical School, and IMCB Singapore, he has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles in journals including Nature Methods, Neuron, and PloS Biology. His integrated approach creates a translational pipeline from genetic discovery to therapeutic development, aiming to improve patient outcomes worldwide.

Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi

College of Health and Life Sciences, HBKU

Dr. Ehsan Pourkarimi completed his PhD at the Wellcome Trust Centre, University of Dundee, where he challenged classical models of DNA damage-induced apoptosis using C. elegans. His work offered new insights into the mechanisms of apoptosis. During his postdoctoral training, he transitioned into chromatin biology, uncovering novel roles for chromatin modifiers in cellular stress responses and histone dynamics. Then he moved to New York and worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a research associate, where he mapped DNA replication origins in multicellular organisms for the first time, providing fundamental insights into chromatin-regulated replication. In 2020, he joined HBKU as an Assistant Professor, establishing a research lab focused on DNA damage response, apoptosis, and chromatin regulation. His team integrates genetics, molecular biology, high-resolution microscopy, proteomics, and genomics to investigate how chromatin modifications influence genome stability and cell fate. His work bridges fundamental biology with translational research in genome maintenance.

Dr. Mohammed Shaker

QBRI, HBKU

Dr. Mohammed R. Shaker is a Scientist at the Neurological Disorders Research Center, Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, and a Joint Assistant Professor at the College of Health & Life Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. He earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Korea University, Seoul, in 2017, and was subsequently awarded the prestigious Brain Korea 21 Plus Fellowship. He then joined the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology at The University of Queensland, where he advanced organoid models for the study of human brain and spinal cord development. Dr. Shaker’s research integrates patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells with organoid platforms, focusing on neurological disorders such as white matter diseases and Autism. His work has garnered multiple national and international awards, such as fellowships from the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the European Leukodystrophy Association. Dr. Shaker continues to explore innovative 3D culture systems and computational approaches to accelerate breakthroughs in neurodegeneration and disease modelling.

Dr. Bernice Lo

Sidra Medicine

Principal Investigator, Head of Laboratory of Immunoregulation; Director, Immune Dysregulation Clinical Research Program, Sidra Medicine.
Joint Assistant Professor, College of Health and Life Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
Bernice obtained her Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology at Duke University in the United States. And trained for her post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in the US, studying genetic disorders of the immune system, where she has helped discover new genetic autoimmune disorders. Since then, she has established her lab at Sidra Medicine and has been contributing to the discovery, diagnosis, and molecular understanding of inherited immune disorders in the region.

Dr. Matteo Avella

Investigator and Assistant Professor
SIDRA Medicine
mavella@smrc.sidra.org

Dr. Matteo Avella is a Principal Investigator at Sidra Medicine and is head of the Lab of Reproductive Biology. Prior to joining Sidra Medicine, Dr. Avella was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Science at the University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK, USA) and the School of Health Professions at Eastern Virginia Medical School (Norfolk, VA, USA). Dr. Avella received his B.A. in Biology from the University of Milan, Bicocca (Italy). He then completed a Ph.D. at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Ancona, Italy), studying the intestinal microbiota’s effects on fish’s early development and reproduction. He conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, USA), where he switched his studies to the mammalian system and focused his research efforts on understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating fertilization in mice and humans. Before his first academic appointment at the University of Tulsa, Dr. Avella received training as a human embryologist at Shady Grove Fertility (Chesterbrook, PA, USA).

Dr. Sahar Isa Da’as

Research Manager and Assistant Professor
SIDRA Medicine
sdaas@sidra.org

Dr. Da'as is a distinguished Research Manager at Sidra Medicine and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University; her research is centered on functional genomics and translational research. 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. Her journey in research began at the IWK Health Centre in Canada, where she focused on rare genetic disorders and childhood cancers, earning an Innovation Excellence Award from Cancer Care Nova Scotia. Dr Da'as, through collaborative projects, continues to translate scientific discoveries into practical applications, providing a foundation for translational studies of novel genes and novel variants. Her impactful work, published in reputable journals, has significantly advanced our understanding of hereditary diseases.