Research & Fellowship in the Division of General, Endocrine & Oncological Surgery:
Basic and Translational Research
Dr. Emad Kandil (Chief, General, Endocrine, and Oncological Surgery) is an experienced scientist in translational research and takes pride in being able to take research from bench to the bedside. His research team focuses on deciphering the molecular mechanisms underlying poor prognosis and drug resistance of advanced thyroid cancer, and melanoma harboring BRAF-V600E mutation. Additionally, the research team is interested in the strategy of multiple targeting of RAF/MEK/ERK1/2 and NF-kB to induce apoptosis and reduce cell growth of thyroid cancer cells using in vitro, in vivo and human specimens. Dr. Kandil is interested in active survellience for thyroid cancer. He is currently collaborating with a team at the National Institute of Health (NIH) to identify a panel of genes that can determine which patients with thyroid cancer can avoid surgical intervention.
Our research team welcomes students, residents and fellows willing to participate in our research program by contacting Dr. Kandil (ekandil@tulane.edu) or his lab 504-988-8665.
Publications
For publication, please visit the link
Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kandil+e
Link: http://tulane.edu/som/cancer/research/people/emad-kandil.cfm
Research Grants
2013: Tulane School of Medicine Dean Fund
2012: Dual targeting of NFKB and MAP kinase pathways in thyroid cancer (as PI). Tulane School of Medicine Dean Fund
2011: Novel genetic targeted therapy of thyroid cancer (as PI). Tulane School of Medicine Research Pilot Program
2010: Therapeutic Targeting of the MAP Kinase and P13K pathways in Thyroid Cancer (as PI). Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium (LCRC)
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS:
Mourad Zerfaoui, PhD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
I have an extensive background in cancer research with specific training and expertise in cancer-related inflammation and signal transduction pathways, which are implicated in the modulation of cancer progression, metastasis, and DNA repair. As PI or co-Investigator on federally funded grants, I have successfully collaborated with national and international research and produced several peer-reviewed publications. I have published over 31 articles in peer reviewed journals in basic and translational sciences, maintain membership in several scientific associations, and have served as an ad hoc reviewer in a number of scientific journals. I also had the chance to work with Dr. Hamid Boulares (Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health Sciences Center) on the role of PARP-1/NF-kB in cellular trafficking and nuclear transport machinery of CRM-1. My present focus is on studying the significance of the mutant BRAVFV600E localization in thyroid cancer and melanoma and how this kinase contributes to treatment resistence and poor prognosis. We are applying molecular and cellular biology as well as therapeutic approaches using in vitro and in vivo mouse models in addition to human specimens.
Click here for a listing of his publications
Eman A. Toraih, MD, MSc, PhD, DBio
Assistant Professor of Medical Genetics, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics
Dr Toraih is an Assistant Professor of Medical Genetics, currently supporting scientific research in the Department of Surgery at Tulane University. Her main research focus is to chart the tumor ecosystem and dynamic epigenetic landscape in thyroid malignancies and leverage the advances of next-generation sequencing and novel computational approaches to dissect and clinically interpret thyroid cancer genomes across different ages, sexes, and races. She has over 18 years of experience in molecular genetics and cancer biology. Her prior experience spans the clinical spectrum, assessing predictive risk factors for cancer progression and drug resistance to different therapeutic modalities, to translational science to characterize the genetic defects underlying thyroid cancer and decipher effective biomarkers. Throughout these years, she realized the power of data science to mine big genomic data, and integrated her genomic and computational skills to answer biologically essential questions. Her goals are to dissect the immune programs and transcription regulators driving thyroid cancer progression at the cellular level and fast-track the scientific knowledge to leverage a cost-effective blood test that identifies aggressive behavior of a tumor in earlier stages than can be clinically evident for clinical implication. Another focus of her laboratory research is identifying novel markers for tumors, including exploring the effect of nuclear localization of BRAF and nuclear trafficking partners on treatment resistance and developing a predictive signature and nomogram for accurate selection of active surveillance in thyroid cancer patients. She has participated in — and organized — biostatistics and bioinformatics training in numerous workshops. She has collaborated with many basic and clinical investigators at Tulane as well as nationwide. She has also published over 170 articles and four books and has served on numerous editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals. Becoming positioned as a computational onco-endocrinologist, she aspires to advance thyroid cancer care in the era of big cancer data, unify cancer biology mechanisms identified by computational approaches within their clinical context and make discoveries that improve the lives of cancer patients.
Mohamed Shama, MD
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Clinical Lab Investigator
Head and Neck Surgeon
Mohamed Hosny Hussein, MD
Medical Research Technician
I am interested in organizing the pipeline of hospital informatics and exploring national databases to predict management outcomes and explore meaningful insights for direct patient care. I am working on multidisciplinary field including endocrine, cancer, trauma, cardiovascular, pulmonary, and COVID-19.
2023 Student Posters
Past Lab Members
1. Muthusamy Kunnimalaiyaan, PhD
Research Assistant Professor, currently at MD Anderson
2. Zack Abd Elmageed, MS, PhD
Research Scientist and director of oncology research labs in Surgery and ENT Departments, Tulane University
Links: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=abd+elmageed
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zakaria_Abd_Elmageed/publications
3. Koji Tsumagari, MD, PhD
Research Associate in Surgery Department, Tulane University
Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=tsumagari+k
4. Ma J, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow in Surgery Department, Tulane University
5. Li X, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow in Surgery Department, Tulane University
6. Emmanuelle Ruiz, PhD
