ABOUT ME
I am an accomplished, highly motivated, and internationally experienced Professor with 20 years of practice in the fields of Public Health and Environmental Sustainability. I develop and lead effective cross-cultural, multi-center & multi-country research projects, encourage national and regional collaborations, and create driving change initiatives across several academic and healthcare institutions. My research interests are in controlling infectious diseases by monitoring the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria to antibiotics, characterizing the related resistance mechanisms and investigating potential new therapeutic options. In parallel, I am interested in food security and have lately been examining the potential for recycling organic materials into compost. I am also encouraging the uses of compost for vegetable growth by looking at the benefits of compost when incorporated in the soil of wicking beds. Another part of my research is about the intestinal mircobiota and its implication in obesity and necrotizing enterocolitis. Since the type of feeding significantly affects intestinal colonization in preterm infants, I am also analyzing the composition of human milk of breastfeeding mothers.
Food Safety by evaluating the innocuity of food strains and studying the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes from animal to human bacteria in the digestive ecosystem and evaluating the influence of environmental factors on this transfer.
Human Microbiota by characterizing its implication in obesity and necrotizing enterocolitis. Since the type of feeding significantly affects intestinal colonization, I am analyzing the microbial composition of breast milk of breastfeeding mothers.
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2000 - 2001
Paris-Saclay University
Master in Microbiology
1995 - 2000
School of Pharmacy, Lebanese American University
Bachelor in Pharmacy
2005 - 2006
Institut Pasteur, France
Post-doctoral Fellowship
2001 - 2005
Microbiology Laboratory of the Pharmacy School, Paris Cité University, Paris
PhD in Microbiology
EDUCATION
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Control of Infectious Diseases by monitoring the emergence and spread of bacteria resistant to antibiotics and characterizing the related resistance mechanisms.
Roles of Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in the fight against microbial agents and with particular attention to their role in the eradication of multi-resistant bacterial strains isolated from infected patients.
Composting of organic food waste at the Dubai campus of Zayed University. I am studying the potential for recycling organic wastes through the microbial decomposition process, testing different compost recipes in 18 composting boxes.
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