Dr. Quincy Brown
Program Coordinator
Email: jqbrown@tulane.edu
Bio: Dr. Brown obtained his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2005. As a graduate student, he pioneered the development of nano-engineered optical enzymatic glucose micro sensors for application to diabetic monitoring. He then moved to the Duke University Department of Biomedical Engineering, where he was a postdoctoral NRSA fellow (NCI), eventually being promoted to assistant research professor. During his tenure at Duke, Dr. Brown focused on applications of quantitative tissue spectroscopy and optical imaging for improving breast cancer patient outcomes. This included clinical investigations into the link between molecular subtype and tumor vascular oxygenation in vivo, and the use of quantitative diffuse optical imaging for intraoperative detection of residual cancer on the margins of tumor resection specimens. He moved to Tulane in 2012, where he is continuing translational research into the development and use of high-throughput fluorescence-enhanced optical microscopy for detection of positive surgical margins, ischemia and re-perfusion monitoring during partial nephrectomy, and sensing of the tumor microenvironment.
Dr. Ahmed Moustafa
Postdoctoral Researcher
Email: amoustafa@tulane.edu
Bio: Dr. Moustafa got his Master degree in the filed of stem cell biology, In 2016 he got his PhD in the filed of Molecular oncology of prostate cancer . Coming with more than 14-year of teaching experience, I have taught medical, biomedical, and basic sciences for under and graduate students including Molecular Genetics, Genetics, Histology and multiple disciplines. I have taught Human Physiology, Biochemistry, Oncology, Genomics & Transplant, Cell Signaling & Therapeutics, and Molecular Biology courses. I have published 16 articles in peer-reviewed journals of basic and translational sciences in addition to conference presentations and published abstracts. The impact of my research is highly sounded as reported by Google Scholar (H-index: 6, citations: 201) and ResearchGate 23.03 (Score is higher than 77.5% of all members) Active member in several scientific associations and served as a reviewer in a number of peer-reviewed
journals.
During my research training, I had a very good opportunity to join a remarkable prostate cancer research team, which was focusing on the crosstalk between patients’ adipose-derived stem cells and prostate cancer progression. Our findings anticipated that the release of exosomes rewires the steroidal hormone receptor signaling such as AR and ER-Beta in the nucleus of the stem cells, which contributes to tumor progression. Also we identified a unique microRNA signature that differentiate between indolent and aggressive prostate cancer patients. My current research is focused on a novel approach for suppressing the progression of PC, an endeavor that will be especially lifesaving for African American (AA), known to be victims of racial disproportionate incidence and mortality of PC. To this end, we are unravelling the underlying mechanisms by which PC continues to progress despite treatment with hormonal therapy. Male hormone (androgens) signaling is necessary for prostate development and functioning, but in PC it is uncontrolled, fueling disease progression. This can be mitigated by in aggressive PC is commonly treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which reduces total androgen levels by up to 90%. Unfortunately, current evidence suggests that intracrine androgens in the PC tissue itself cannot be fully depleted. As a result, residual androgens within the tumor microenvironment will eventually be sufficient for continued progression, leading to development of castration-resistant PC (CRPC), which is termina, with less than a third of patients survive five years. To prevent progression from aggressive PC to CRPC, ADT must be augmented with a treatment that addresses residual androgens within PC tissue. However, strategies are under survey. Currently he is the postdoc in charge of the sample prep of Visium and Visium for Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded (FFPE) at Tulane Spatial Multiomics Core.
