Prof Dr. Kawthar Diab | Biology and Life Science | Best Researcher Award

She holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from Ain Shams University, awarded in March 2009, with her research focusing on the protective role of medicinal plants against the genotoxic effects induced by hydrocortisone in mice. Prior to that, she earned an M.Sc. in Experimental Zoology from Zagazig University in May 2003, where she conducted cytogenetic and immunogenetic studies on cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil, with a particular focus on their effects on reproduction in rats. She completed her B.Sc. in Zoology from Al-Azhar University in May 1996, graduating with a “very good” grade. Her postdoctoral research includes a six-month fellowship at Tokai University, Japan, in the Department of Bioscience, School of Agriculture, from June to December 2014. Additionally, she pursued another six-month postdoctoral fellowship in the Cancer Pharmacology Division at the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu, India, from March to September 2012.

Work experience

She has actively participated in international workshops and conferences, including the Fluorescence Microscopy workshop “FluoMicro@ICGEB” at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in New Delhi, India, from October 2nd to 4th, 2019. Additionally, she was a speaker at the 6th Rajabhat University National and International Research and Academic Conference, held virtually on August 17-18, 2020, where she presented her research on the Cancer Chemopreventive Activity of Himalayan Plants. In terms of academic supervision, she has guided Ph.D. student Amr Mohammed Abo-Elhamd Ahmed, an Assistant Researcher at the Department of Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt. His research focuses on the biochemical and therapeutic evaluation of selected Lamiaceae family plants for prostate disease treatment.

Research project

She has actively contributed to several local and international research projects, playing key roles in various studies. From 2005 to 2008, she was a member of a National Research Centre (NRC) project investigating the genotoxic effects of environmental pollution and veterinary drugs (Project No. 7110613). Between 2010 and 2013, she participated in an NRC-funded project on the production and evaluation of bioactive metabolites and hypolipidemic agents derived from marine sponge and coral endophytic microorganisms against carcinogenic pathogens, liver, and colon cancer (Project No. 9100302).

Her research extended to environmental toxicology, where she contributed to a Science & Technology Development Fund (STDF) project (2012-2014) evaluating mango byproducts as antioxidants against genetic damage caused by lead pollution (Project No. 4782). From 2017 to 2019, she served as a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on an NRC project studying the anti-hepatotoxic and antigenotoxic properties of plant extracts and their safety for use (Project No. 11010345). During the same period, she was also a member of an NRC project exploring the effects of nanoparticles in tissue culture applications (Project No. 11030108).

Her expertise further contributed to projects applying OMICS technology to enhance food safety in Egypt (2020-2022, Project No. 12050305) and exploring new pharmaceutical raw materials for prostate disease treatment (2020-2022, Project No. 12060108). Additionally, she collaborated with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on a research project (2020-2022) focused on improving the production of therapeutic ingredients in Lamiaceae plants for prostate disease treatment using biotechnology techniques.

Publication