Personal Statement
Having worked on the investigation of the photodynamic effect on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo at ICCMGR during the period (2004 – 2007) followed by research work on Kleine-Levin Syndrome project under Prof. Anne-Marie Landtblom’s supervision at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, the University of Linköping, Sweden (2008-2009), my recent interests have been in the Molecular Biology of cancer.
My PhD study (2011-2015) at the University of Liverpool, UK was a studentship granted from the University of Baghdad. Through my doctoral research, I sought to identify ten genes involved in the mitotic spindle checkpoint process (AURKA, AURKB, AURKC, CKAP5, DLGAP5, KIF11, TPX2, TTK, TUBB and TUBB3). I explored their potential to modulate taxane resistance in the human airways carcinomas with a focus on its most prevalent form of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).
This work was performed as part of collaboration between two of the main research groups in the Department of Molecular & Clinical Cancer Medicine; the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Research Programme and the Mersey Head & Neck Oncology Group, co-located in the University of Liverpool Cancer Research Centre.
In 2016, I re-joined the lung group as an Honorary Research Associate/ Postdoc under the line management of Dr Lakis Liloglou. During my honorary association, I have had a technical advisory role in the supervising teams of three PhD students during the period (2016-2019). In this aspect, I started to produce pilot results for enhancing grant application potentials. Based on the novelty of my research work, I was able to publish the findings in a number of peer-reviewed journals with high impact factor (e.g. British Journal of Cancer).
Recently, I have established research collaboration between Iraq (University of Baghdad and Ministry of Health & environment) and the UK (University of Liverpool) to develop an Iraqi Risk Model for Lung Cancer prediction and early detection screening programme in Iraq. I initiated this effort by establishing contact with key scientists and physicians from both the UK and Iraq. We (I and my collaborators) have already activated a recruitment process under the Iraq Healthy Lung Project (IHLP). We were successfully granted a University of Liverpool ODA Research Seed Fund. It represents the first joint grant application between the Universities of Liverpool and Baghdad that have been spent, as planned, to strengthen and expand the current network so that further funding can be applied for.
Whilst Prof. John K Field (Clinical Professor of Molecular Oncology) was acting as Principal Investigator (PI), I was acting as Co-Investigator (Co-I) for the Iraqi contingent (including the University of Baghdad and Ministry of Health & Environment) took a very active role in the application alongside Dr Michael Davies at the University of Liverpool.
I have also been promoted to Director of the National Cancer Research Centre at the University of Baghdad (2021-2022) and my honorary appointment at the University of Liverpool has been upgraded to Honorary Senior Research Fellow.
Finally, recognising that implementing low-dose CT (LDCT) screening of high-risk individuals, identified by appropriate lung cancer risk models, saves lives and that these is a significant burden of lung cancer in Iraq, I’m currently leading IHLP at WICI to explore the practicalities of LDCT screening in Iraq.