Dr. Ramy K. AZIZ is a professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, which he chaired from 2016-2021. He is currently the head of M.A.R.C. Bioscience Research Laboratories in 6 October City. From 2021-2024, he directed the Microbiology and Immunology research program at the Children’s Cancer Hospital of Egypt.
Dr. Aziz received his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Tennessee, Health Science Center in Memphis TN, and has performed postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago, San Diego State University, and the University of California San Diego (2008-2013). His research interests span several areas of microbiology and immunology, microbial pathogen and phage genomics, and microbiomics. He is a pioneer of the field of pharmacomicrobiomics (drug-microbiome interactions). Since 2001, he published 119 peer-reviewed articles, a book, nine book sections, and he maintains two bioinformatics databases. His research work has been nationally and internationally acknowledged through several awards, including the TWAS, COMSTECH, and Shoman Awards, and he is ranked among the top 1% most cited authors in the SCOPUS database. In 2021, Prof. Aziz was appointed as a member of the TWAS Advisory Committee on COVID-19 (TACC), now the TWAS Advisory Committee on Pandemics (TACP).
Session Title: Innovation and Applied Research in the Arab Region
Presentation Title: Old is New! Leveraging our inner defenses in the fight against cancer and multiresistant bacteria
ABSTRACT
This presentation highlights the innovation gap between rising and struggling economies, and questions how far our biomedical research keeps the balance between creating knowledge and saving human lives. A proposed model for narrowing this gap leverages our inner defenses: immune cells and antibodies (immunotherapy), human-associated microbes (the microbiota), and bacteriophages (natural bacterial predators). Examples from achieved and ongoing research projects will be presented to illustrate this model.