DrAlaaRiezk

Summary

Alaa is a pharmacist, has a master degree in 2011 in Microbiology from Damascus university and a PhD degree in 2020 in microbiology and drug delivery from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and joined Imperial College as a post doc researcher in the Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO) with Professor Alison Holmes.

Technical skills

• Microbiology and Immunology methods: bacterial serotyping, virulence factors studying, and liquid and solid culture of bacteria, isolation and transformation. Parasites screening in stool and urine samples. Cell viability assay. Immunofluorescence-Immunostaining, Direct - Indirect and Sandwich ELISA.
• Molecular biology: Primers design, RNA and DNA extraction and purification, reverse transcription, digestions, ligations, cloning, transformation, PCR, RT-PCR, Sanger sequencing, MLP, NGS (quantification, library preparation, instrument running) and data analysing.
• Imaging: Light microscopy, inverted microscope, confocal microscopy and multiphoton fluorescence microscopy.
• Analytical methods: Spectrophotometer, chromatography (HPLC)
• Cell-based assays and skills: Cell viability, proliferation and cytotoxicity assays using Alamar-Blue and, fluorescence-based techniques. Extracting bone marrow macrophages from mice. Using both static and flow culture system (by using an advanced interconnected cell culture flow system, engineered to provide in vivo like conditions for cell growth) and doing the different analysis. Cell uptake (phagocytosis or pinocytosis) by using fluorescent particles or labelled dextran. Nanoparticles preparation and analysing (sizes, charge, stability, drug release….). Franz diffusion cell skin permeation study.
• Animal experience: I shadowed others while performing in vivo studies on mice regarding toxicity studies, infecting mice with Leishmania parasites, drugging, bioluminescence imaging of Leishmania in the BALB/c mice mode and extracting skins and lesions for further studies.
• Manager of Clinical Laboratory for Medical Testing Service for 3 years including: Monitor standards of laboratory performance, including definition, monitoring and review of internal and external quality control and of the quality movement. Interpret, correlate and communicate laboratory data, including the provision of consultation regarding the medical significance of clinical laboratory data. Dutifully conducting analysis related to chemistry, hematology, immunology, hormonology and body fluids. Conducting tests regarding drug resistance bacteria screening. Successfully conducting special tests in microbiology/infectious diseases such as Procalcitonin, C. Difficile Toxin, Liogenella and S. Pneumoniae Urine antigens, Malaria Antigen, Cryptococcus antigen and TB Quantiferon. Conducting advanced serological testing in infectious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis A/B/C, EBV, CMV, Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Leptospira, Lyme disease and Brucella

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