MENA Microbiome
From Biomarkers Discovery
to Microbiota-based Therapeutics

Dr. Maha Al Asmakh

Department Head of Biomedical Sciences
Qatar University
Qatar

Maha Al-Asmakh, MSc, PhD, CTgyn(ASCPi)CM is an associate professor Head of Biomedical Sciences Department at the College of Health Sciences at Qatar University. She is also the chair of the Reproductive System Network Group at Qatar University. Dr. Al-Asmakh earned her BSc in biomedical sciences with honors from Qatar University and went on to complete her MSc in human reproductive biology at Imperial College London. She obtained her PhD from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a board certified by American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) as a gynaecologic cytologist CTgyn(ASCPi). Dr. Al-Asmakh's research interests lie in the areas of microbiome studies, reproduction and Zebrafish toxicology. She is the recipient of several awards including the L'Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Middle East Fellowship 2016 and ASCP 40 under Forty 2023 award. In addition to her primary role, Dr. Al-Asmakh serves as a Laboratory Consultant Clinical Scientist at the Ministry of Public Health. Dr. Al-Asmakh also reviews scientific journals and research grants and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

Dr. Souhaila Al Khodor

Director of Reproductive and Perinatal Health
Sidra Medicine
Qatar

Dr. Al Khodor is the Director of Reproductive and Perinatal Health Division in the Research Branch at Sidra Medicine, Qatar.

Dr. Al Khodor received her Bachelor’s degree in Medical Lab technology from the Faculty of Public Health at the Lebanese University in 2001. Soon after, she started her master’s degree in microbiology and Immunology at the American University of Beirut (2002-2004). Dr. Al Khodor received her second master’s degree and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA (2005-2008). Before joining Sidra, Dr. Al Khodor worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Signaling systems Unit, laboratory of Systems Biology, at the National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA.

Dr. Al Khodor’s laboratory at Sidra Medicine focuses on using multi-omics (metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) and computational biology aiming to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying various diseases. Her primary goal is to identify early biomarkers for disease prediction. With a special focus on pregnancy complications (mainly preterm birth and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus) and complex pediatric disorders such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, her research at Sidra Medicine has attracted around 2.5 million USD in external funds.

Dr. Al Khodor is an adjunct Faculty at the College of Health & Life Science in Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She has over 74 peer-reviewed publications. She currently serves as the Section Editor for Metagenomics in the Journal of Translational Medicine.

Prof. Mohammad Albataineh

Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences
Khalifa University
UAE

Dr. Al Bataineh is a medical doctor (MD) who successfully completed the United States Medical Licensing (USMLE) (ECFMG certified), with a graduate training in microbiology and immunology translational research from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (PhD). In addition, he completed post-doctoral training and was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), USA. He published several articles in the area of the human microbiome role in health and disease conditions.

Dr. Farah Al-Marzooq

Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology
United Arab Emirates University
UAE

Dr. Farah is an assistant professor of microbiology in the Department of medical microbiology and immunology at the college of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University. She is a medical doctor specialized in Molecular Microbiology. She obtained her medical degree from Baghdad Medical College, Iraq. Then, she furthered her studies in Malaysia where she obtained a master and PhD degree in Molecular Microbiology. Her research was mainly focused on discovering the antibacterial activities of potential drug leads on the resistant bacteria and identifying putative drug targets against antibiotic resistant bacteria implicated in causing many life-threatening infections. Furthermore, she worked on studying the composition of oral microbiota in health and disease, using advanced molecular techniques incorporating next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. She has published several papers in peer reviewed international journals. She has so far two US patents and one international patent. She is a member of the editorial board of several prestigious journals.

Prof. Peer Bork

Director
EMBL Heidelberg
Germany

Peer directs the Heidelberg site of EMBL (European Molecular Biology laboratory), Europe’s only intergovernmental organization in life sciences. He is senior group leader in the areas of computational biology and microbiomics. His work has been recognized by honorary professorships at the universities of Heidelberg and Würzburg as well as the Fudan university of Shanghai. Peer received his PhD in Biochemistry (1990) and his Habilitation in Theoretical Biophysics (1995). He has published more than 700 research articles, among them more than 80 in Nature, Science or Cell, and is among the most cited researchers in the world (>360.000 citations, H-factor of 241 in 2024). He is or has been on the editorial board of various journals, including Science and Cell, and functions as founding editor of the journal Molecular Systems Biology. Peer co-founded five successful biotech companies, two of which went public. More than 70 of his former associates now hold professorships or other group leader positions in prominent institutions all over the world. He received a number of awards, among them the "Nature award for creative mentoring" for his achievements in nurturing and stimulating young scientists, the prestigious "Royal Society and Académie des Sciences Microsoft award" for the advancement of science using computational methods and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Novozymes prize for outstanding contributions to Biotechnology. He further obtained two competitive ERC advanced investigator grants and is elected member of the German national academy of sciences (Leopoldina), the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and the Academia Europaea.

Dr. Marvin Edeas

Professor of Medicine at Université de Paris
Investigator at INSERM U1016 and Institut Cochin

Marvin Edeas is a Professor of Medicine at Université de Paris and investigator at INSERM U1016 and Institut Cochin. His expertise spans the fields of endocrinology and metabolism with a special focus on the interaction between mitochondria and microbiota in health and disease. His main interest is the role of mitochondria and Microbiota inter talks in health and diseases. He investigated how to modulate human microbiome and the role of metabolites. He investigated the intriguing relationship between mitochondria and microbiota in kidney diseases. He published many studies related to Covid-19 infection in patients and the first who highlighted the mechanisms behind iron alterations and infection. Marvin Edeas is the founder and past President of the World Mitochondria Society, President of Mitochondria and Microbiota Task Force and Chairman of the scientific committee of International Society of Microbiota. He received the following awards: Sidaction Award and South Est Asia Award on Microbiota Medicine. He is an expert at Agence de Biomédecine and AERES: Agence d’Evaluation de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supérieur. He published more than 83 publications, patents and books. He is also currently associate editor at the Journal of Mitochondria, Plastids & Endosymbiosis (Taylor and Franics). Marvin Edeas Co-Edited the best seller book, the Mitochondrial Medicine Books: Manipulating Mitochondrial Function (Springer).

Prof. Mohammad Issa El Mouzan

College of Medicine
King Saud University
Saudi Arabia

Graduated MD from Montpellier School of Medicine, France, 1973. Pediatric Residency at the University of Arizona, USA. American Board of Pediatrics Certification in 1981, Currently Professor and Consultant Pediatrician at King Saud University in Riyadh, KSA.

Dr. Mamoun Elawad

Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 
Sidra Medicine
Qatar

Prof. Elawad has his training in Pediatric gastroenterology at Great Ormond Street, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Oxford John Radcliff Hospital and King’s College Hospital. He worked as a consultant Pediatric gastroenterologist at University Hospital of Wales and Birmingham Children’s Hospital before he rejoined Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2002 as a consultant gastroenterologist and senior lecturer at the University College of London. He has been the head of the department at Great Ormond Street since 2007 until he joined Sidra Medicine in 2014 as a Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology and director of inflammatory bowel disorders. Whist at GOSH, he became the founder and the director of the first worldwide pioneering program for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for autoimmune and inflammatory gut diseases. He was also the director of the department international collaboration “ImproveCareNow” at GOSH, and recently at Sidra Medicine, which involves 98 pediatric gastrointestinal units in the United States, with GOSH and Sidra Medicine being the only centers outside the United States. He was also the co-founder of the European GENIUS group that oversees the diagnosis and the treatment of children with early onset inflammatory bowel diseases. Prof. Elawad has been a senior lecturer at the Institute of Child Health – University College of London and his main research areas of interest are autoimmune gut disorders, genetics of inflammatory bowel disease, microbiota and genetic interaction in inflammatory gut diseases, Early Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease and GI food allergy. He has many publications in these areas.

Prof. Alessio Fasano

Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition
Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, MA
USA

A pediatric gastroenterologist, Alessio Fasano, MD, is head of the Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Brigham (MGB) and professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2000, his group discovered zonulin, a protein associated with gut dysbiosis that regulates intestinal tight junctions. His basic research focuses on bacterial pathogenesis, gut microbiome composition and function in health and disease, the regulation of gut permeability, intestinal mucosal biology and immunology and SARS-CoV-2. He is director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at MGB and widely sought after as an expert in celiac disease, intestinal permeability and autoimmune disorders. Dr. Fasano is the author of Gluten Freedom and co-author with Susie Flaherty of Gut Feelings: The Microbiome and Our Health, published in March 2021 by MIT Press.

Dr. Vibeke Telle-Hansen

Associate Professor
Oslo Metropolitan University
Norway

Vibeke Telle-Hansen obtained her MSc and PhD degrees in nutrition at the University of Oslo, Norway. After her PhD she was employed in a Norwegian food company, having responsibility for the research projects. Since 2016, she is associate professor in nutrition at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet), Norway. Since 2022, Telle-Hansen has the academic responsibility of Intelligent Health, a strategic initiative at OsloMet facilitating research, innovation and education within health and technology. Telle-Hansen has extensive teaching experience and has supervised more than 30 master’s students and 4 PhD students, including 2 ongoing. The overall aim of Telle-Hansen’s research is to understand how diet and nutrients affect cardiometabolic health and disease. Her research focus is within prevention, including identifying new biomarkers. In her research, she characterizes different phenotypes, or so-called metabotypes, to better understand cardiometabolic pathways. She has long experience in implementing randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to investigate the causal effects of nutrients (mainly fat and fiber) on gut microbiota and human metabolic regulation. Her current focus is within the field of precision nutrition. As part of her research, she is using sensors and digital data in combination with biological samples, including omics data, and machine learning to investigate individual regulation (responders/non-responders).