Centre of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research (CMBHSR)

Overview

Ajman University Center for Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research (CMBAHSR) is the University’s central point for connecting Ajman university researchers to opportunities for funding and a variety of research-related services. Research in Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences is contributing to the development of life -changing technologies with significant impact on individuals and communities.

Ajman University researchers are:

• Engaged in studies of chronic disease prevention and management, public health policy and practice, all with a view to developing strategies that improve well-being.
• Conducting fundamental research into the molecular, and biophysical determinants of disease states.
• Improving medical diagnostic procedures and drug design.
• Using developments in artificial intelligence to deliver personalized care for medical conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Diabetes mellitus and metabolic syndrome, neurosciences, cardiovascular and renal sciences.
• Developing new and improved technologies for the targeted release of therapeutic agents.
• Improving the quality of health services for vulnerable populations through the development and implementation of innovative research and training programs.
• Integrating research and education programs to enhance health care practices in UAE.

Mission

The AU- (CEMBHSR) provides a comprehensive suite of high-quality services, expert knowledge, experience, and professional networks in support of the research enterprise.

Goals

• To identify, promote, and facilitate research funding opportunities.
• Build opportunities to increase interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
• To enhance institutional infrastructure and processes that support and enable research excellence and impact in medical and health sciences.
• To encourage and support engagement in high-quality research and knowledge transfer activities amongst its pool of world-class researchers.
• To facilitate and support the achievement of excellence in research and commercialization of research results.

Research Highlights: Latest News & Achievements

Welcome to our Research Highlights: Latest News & Achievements! This section celebrates our research center's outstanding accomplishments, awards, and activities. Discover the latest news, innovative work, and significant milestones that showcase the excellence and dedication within our community.

If you are part of our research center and have an achievement or news to share, please contact Dr. Mohammad Anas Shamsi (m.shamsi@ajman.ac.ae) with the details. We are always eager to celebrate and acknowledge our team members' hard work and successes.

1. Best Presenter at International conference, ICCBOC 24, held at Singapore on 2-3rd August 2024.

2. Second Place at the 11th Undergraduate Research and Innovation Competition at Abu Dhabi University

Date: May 2024

Category: Electrical Engineering

Awarded To: Bayan Alradi, Rand Agha, Bashayer Al-Maamari

Supervised By: Dr. Samer Zyoud

We are thrilled to announce a significant achievement by members of our Advanced Nanotechnology Research Group at the 11th Undergraduate Research and Innovation Competition held at Abu Dhabi University. Our team, composed of Bayan Alradi, Rand Agha, and Bashayer Al-Maamari, participated in the Environmental and Electrical Engineering category under the exceptional supervision of Dr. Samer Zyoud.

Their innovative project earned them second place in the Electrical Engineering category, a prestigious recognition that highlights their hard work, dedication, and the high quality of their research. This accomplishment is a testament to able supervision and guidance provided by Dr. Zyoud.

The Advanced Nanotechnology Research Group, led by Dr. Samer Zyoud, continues to push the boundaries of research and innovation. This success underscores our commitment to excellence and the impactful contributions of our talented students.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Bayan Alradi, Rand Agha, Bashayer Al-Maamari, and Dr. Samer Zyoud for this outstanding achievement. We also express our gratitude to Prof. Kamran, Dean of Research and Graduate Studies; Prof. Mohd Nasor, Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology; and Prof. Moayad Shahwan, Head, Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research and everyone who supported and encouraged the team throughout their journey.

 3. Oral Presentation at MONASH INITIATE 2023 Conference Held at Monash University, Malaysia

Dr. Mohammad Anas Shamsi, working as Full Time Research Associate at the Centre of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research (CMBHSR), hosted at College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Ajman University, UAE, delivered a compelling Scientific Talk entitled “REPURPOSING DRUGS FOR BRUTON'S TYROSINE KINASE INHIBITION: A COMBINED VIRTUAL SCREENING AND MOLECULAR DYNAMICS STUDY” at international conference “MONASH INITIATE 2023”, held at Monash University, Malaysia (Ranked 42nd globally in QS World University Rankings 2024.).

Dr. Shamsi's presentation shed light on the fascinating world of drug repurposing, a field with the potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical research and development. His research involved a comprehensive study that combines virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations to identify novel uses for existing drugs in the inhibition of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase, a key player in various diseases, including certain types of cancer and autoimmune disorders.

The presentation, delivered at MONASH INITIATE 2023, was met with great enthusiasm from the audience, consisting of fellow researchers, scholars, and industry professionals. It showcased Mr. Shamsi's dedication to pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge and his innovative approach to drug discovery and is a testament to the research excellence and commitment to advancing scientific knowledge at Ajman University. Dr. Shamsi's work adds to the AU reputation as a hub of innovative and impactful research in the field of pharmaceutical sciences and provides a perfect platform to represent AU globally.

Dr. Mohammad Anas Shamsi is highly grateful to Prof. Kamran, Dean of Research and Graduate Studies and Prof. Moayad Shahwan, Head, Center of Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research for all the support and is indebted to Ajman University fro providing funding to attend this reputed event.

Research Center Membership

Research Center Membership

Membership types include (1) Full membership for full-time AU academic faculty who have published at least one Q1 papers in their area of specialization in the past academic year, and (2) Affiliate membership for full-time AU academic faculty. 

Full-time AU academic faculty are required to fill in their membership preferences in the form below: 

Research Center Membership Form

Members of CMBAHSR Executive Committee

The Head of CMBAHSR

Professor Moayad Jamal Saeed Al Shahwan

Full Time Research Associate

Dr. Mohammad Anas Shamsi

 Coordinators of the research teams

Interdisciplinary Population Health

Research of the Interdisciplinary Population Health team aims to further advance the expertise and competence of academic health disciplines through developments of discipline sharing and integration. It also aims to address social and collaborative matters amongst the health disciplines away from discipline-related academic outcomes.

The team will collaborate with health organizations, governments, industry, and other research institutes, locally and internationally to tackle the essence, process, and outcomes of population health concepts with the ultimate goal of enhancing the health condition of the population. The research will adopt established interdisciplinary methods of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in addressing health problems of people equally; leading to enhanced health outcomes and effective and efficient running of health management systems that cater for the health needs of the population.

Interdisciplinary Population Health

Diabetes and metabolic syndrome

Diabetes and metabolic syndrome

Neuroscience

Neuroscience

Cardiovascular and renal

Cardiovascular and renal 

Epidemiology and community medicine

Epidemiology and community medicine

Drug Design, Development, Delivery, Analysis and Mechanistic Studies

Drug Design, Development, Delivery, Analysis and Mechanistic Studies (D4AMS) is an established component of the CMBHSR within the Ajman University (AU). The members of the team shall work on the convergence of health and medical sciences between the AU’s medical, dental, biological/biochemical, pharmaceutical and biomedical engineering programs to address the UAE’s most pressing health problems, and the world at large by improving biomedical and health care research.

To open new vistas in the next generation medical science that enables discovery of new drugs, low-cost and high-quality personalized yet scalable healthcare, disease prevention, early detection and containment, and new modes of medical science education. D4AMS has the resources, facilities and equipment for drug design, development (including synthesis and characterisation), analysis and formulation development and characterization and clinical studies.

Medical Instrumentation and Signal Processing

Since engineering has always been progressing side-by-side with medicine and biology, the aim of the Medical Instrumentation and Signal Processing (MISP) team is to collaborate with other groups within CEMBHSR, other research centres within AU, as well as external research entities (outside AU) to deliver novel research work that will have a positive impact on society and advance knowledge in healthcare. The research interests of the team lie in several areas such as sensor fabrication, neuro-engineering, medical electronics, biomaterials, bio-signal processing, and image processing.

In addition to the regular members of the team, faculty members and industry specialists from all engineering and information technology disciplines shall be invited to add to the existing expertise of the team in order to create the ideal environment for tackling contemporary and complex research problems.   

Clinical and Translational Dentistry

Our team is multifaceted with departments actively pursuing research in both clinical and translational dental treatment. Our endeavour would be to collaborate with other colleges present within the university and globally to achieve our goal of contributing justifiable and repeatable results that sheds light on some frequently asked research questions. As a college which belongs to a consortium of colleges in the region providing clinical good governance, it is our responsibility to contribute judiciously to the cause. Our team will be concentrating on topics related to:

• Oral cancer, biochemical studies, and studies related to growth and development
• Studies related to metabolic syndromes, with emphasis on diabetes mellitus and obesity
• Translational research with relation to local delivery of drugs in animal model studies and ex-vivo studies as a multidisciplinary collaborative effort along with college of medicine and pharmacy
• In-silica analysis using AI to evaluate microbial flora and cytology studies
• Incorporating big data and assessing its implications in dental treatment delivery
• Conducting cross-sectional analysis and population based studies related to a specific dental disease

Advanced Nanotechnology Research

This is Advanced nanotechnology research group under the umbrella of Center for Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research. The Nanotechnology research group at Ajman University is a newly established in AU with a technical and descriptive research coordinated by Dr. Samer. It constitutes a significant breakthrough in the development and activation of scientific research in pursuit of the country's development according to the AU strategic plans. This group aid in the promotion of research role to reach an advanced level of research and provide highly skilled and well-educated expertise in the interdisciplinary areas. The main aim of this research group is to build on the skill sets that already exists under the belt of the AU curricula aimed at developing nanotechnology-based solutions that will serve the best interest of UAE and its society in a variety of ways. An important target of our research group is to serve as a connecting bridge between Academia and Industries and to create a pool of researchers that are experts in the field of nanotechnology ultimately aiding in the betterment of the society. Another important target is to establish new educational programs in nanotechnology.

The aim of this research group is to cover the Undergraduate and Graduate students of Pharmacy and Engineering. The main research topics covered under our group are:

1. Synthesis of Nanoparticles

2. Photocatalysis

3. Lasers and Sensors

4. Waste Water Treatment

5. Nanotechnology in Disease therapeutics

6. Antibacterial activity and toxicity mechanism of nanoparticles

Structure based Drug Design and Discovery Lab

 The structure-based drug design and Discovery group under the Center for Medical and Bio-Allied Health Sciences Research umbrella aims to understand the structure-function relationships and investigate drug-protein interactions of various clinically relevant proteins. Structure-based drug design has become a valuable and essential part of drug discovery and possibly the most relevant approach to discovering bioactive leads exhibiting high specificity and effectiveness. We use various Bioinformatics methods, namely molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, and molecular modelling approaches to investigate the structure of proteins and their complexes with drugs and other molecules. These approaches unveil a comprehensive understanding of the drug-protein interactions for disease therapeutics, namely Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Our group aims to discover new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's and related neurodegenerative diseases and Cancer. Our group also focuses on various drug protein interactions that can play a key role in treatment of Neurodegenerative diseases. 

Molecular Research in Cancer

Molecular Research in Cancer" is a dedicated research group focused on unraveling the complexities of cancer at the molecular level. Led by accomplished researchers in the field, the group employs cutting-edge techniques to study various aspects of cancer biology. Their research spans across understanding the molecular mechanisms driving cancer initiation, progression, metastasis, and drug resistance.

Coordinator: 

Dr. Pratibha Prasad

Dental Biomaterials and Clinical Translational Research Group

Dental Biomaterials and Clinical Translational Research Group

This group will focus on advancing research in dental materials and translating laboratory findings into clinical practice for improved patient outcomes.

Proposed Aims of the Group:

a. Development and Optimization of Dental Biomaterials: Explore innovative materials with enhanced biocompatibility, durability, and sustainability for dental applications. 

b. Clinical Translational Research: Bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical implementation to improve patient care and treatment outcomes.

c. Sustainability in Dentistry: Investigate and promote the use of eco-friendly materials and practices within the dental field.

d. Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Foster partnerships with other disciplines, such as materials science and bioengineering, to drive innovation in dental biomaterials. It will also train researchers and clinicians in the latest developments in dental biomaterials and clinical translational research.

Infrastructure & Facilities

CORE FACILITIES:

1. Western Blot
2. Tissue culture Lab
3. HPLC (Prominence-I new series),
4. FTIR (IRAffinity)
5. Fully automated chemistry analyser
6. Discover Microwave Synthesizer Rotary Evaporator
7. ELISA Reader with Washer
8. DLS nano sizer, Climate Chamber
9. Ultra Sonicator, Carbon dioxide incubator
10. Refrigerated micro centrifuge (Z216 ML with rotor)
11. Makerbot 3D Printer (METHOD X), Freeze Dryer
12. Alga Pure HPLC Water System
13. BioRAD Universal Hood
14. BioRAD Mini Protean Tetra system
15. Table top centrifuge (Hermile)
16. BioRad Trans-blot SD cell
17. Automated Autoclave (JSR, Korea)
18. Microscopes (Leica, Kruss)
19. Biosafety Cabinet
20.  Fluorescecne Spectrophotometer
21. Animal house facility- in process

Funding

Internal Funding:

AU provides funds to members of the research center through internal research grants and infrastructure support for researchers in the medical and allied health sciences fields.

List of Ongoing Projects for the current academic year:

External Research Grants:

The center will target to gain the award of research grants from major national and international research funding agencies. In addition, researchers will be involved in joint research projects with a variety of national and international private and public institutions.

International Collaborators

The suggested external partners are as follows. Others may also be considered.

Adjunct Research Associates

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