Dubai’s first biomedical PhD graduates fight cancer, superbugs

Dubai: Two female students from the first cohort of Dubai’s only PhD programme in Biomedical Sciences at the Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences (MBRU) have produced impactful research in cancer therapy and antimicrobial resistance.

MBRU’s Class of 2025 includes 164 graduates representing 30 academic programmes. The groundbreaking research by the two PhD students in Biomedical Sciences underscores the university’s commitment to advancing health sciences in the UAE and beyond.

Shakhzada Ibragimova, who was part of MBRU’s first master's intake in 2020 and continued into its inaugural PhD programme in 2021, focused her thesis on Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) – a particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat form of the disease. Under the supervision of Dr Fahad Ali, her research uncovered how a protein called FOXC1 plays a key role in helping cancer cells resist chemotherapy.

“Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive type of breast cancer and is especially challenging to treat due to limited therapeutic options,” said Ibragimova, who hails from Kazakhstan.

“My findings show that FOXC1 contributes to chemotherapy resistance, helping explain why certain tumours poorly respond to treatment.”

Her work revealed that FOXC1 alters chromatin accessibility, which in turn changes how cancer genes behave – making the disease harder to treat. Importantly, she found that targeting FOXC1 with a specific drug can reverse this effect and make cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy.

“Our findings suggest that targeting FOXC1 could help overcome chemotherapy resistance in TNBC, opening the door to new possibilities for drug development,” she noted. “I aim to advance translational cancer research by exploring how oncogenic networks influence treatment responses.”

Meanwhile, Syrine Nouara Boucherabine’s research took aim at a growing global concern: antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Working under the supervision of Dr Abiola Senok, she used a cutting-edge multiomics approach to study local profiling of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – a dangerous pathogen known for causing skin and hard-to-treat infections.

“There’s a lot of global data on MRSA, but not enough specific to our region,” said Boucherabine, who also completed her master’s degree at MBRU and is originally from Algeria. “I wanted to use the tools of multiomics to generate a more complete local profile of how these bacteria evolve, spread, and resist treatment.”

Her thesis combined techniques such as genotyping, whole genome sequencing, metabolomics, and proteomics to provide a detailed view of MRSA strains found in UAE. The study not only identified markers of resistance and virulence but also proposed ways to support targeted infection control and public health strategies.

“I'd like to collaborate with institutions focused on infection control to help translate this research into actionable surveillance tools. There’s scope to build frameworks that use this kind of data in real time.”

Professor Stefan du Plessis, Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, said the PhD graduates have tackled some of the most pressing health challenges facing the region and the world.

“Their work exemplifies the kind of research we strive for, bridging the laboratory and the clinic to improve outcomes for patients and communities.”

Dean of the College of Medicine, Professor Suleiman Al-Hammadi, noted the graduation of the first cohort of PhD students in biomedical sciences is a “landmark achievement”.
“These graduates represent the next generation of clinician-scientists and researchers who will carry forward MBRU’s mission to advance health for humanity.”