Souhaila Al Khodor, MSc, PhD

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
Director – Reproductive and Perinatal Health Division
Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery

Email: salkhodor@sidra.org
Phone: +974 40037397

Biography

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.
Research Interests

The laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers discovery team, studies the role of the human microbiome in health and disease with a special focus on maternal and child health.

In collaboration with the clinical teams, we are building repositories of samples collected from patients including pregnant women, their babies and children with various chronic diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel disease, nephrotic syndrome and sepsis. The team have developed various protocols to assess how microbial dysbiosis and/or microbial metabolites contribute to disease onset and progression. We also integrate the metagenomics data with other omics datasets (ie transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, etc.) to identify biomarkers that can serve as a signature for disease onset, progression or response to treatment.
Lab Members

Manoj Kumar, PhD
Staff Scientist

Email: mkumar (@) sidra.org

Mohamed Nadhir Djekidel, PhD

Staff Scientist, computational biology

Email: MDjekidel1 (@) sidra.org

Selvasankar Murugesan, PhD

Staff Scientist

Email: smurugesan (@) sidra.org

Parul Singh, PhD

Research Specialist II

Email: psingh (@) sidra.org

Miss Noora Al Muhannadi, MS

Research Specialist II

Email: NalMuhannadi (@) sidra.org

Miss Hissa Al Fakhri, MS

Research Specialist II

Email: halfakhri (@) sidra.org

Ms Marwa Saadaoui, MS

Research Specialist I

Email: msaadaoui (@) sidra.org

Miss Duaa Elhag, MS

Research Specialist I

Email: delhag (@) sidra.org

Selected publications (†co-first, *corresponding):

Singh P, Al Mohannadi N, Murugesan S, Almarzooqi F, Kabeer BSA, Marr AK, Kino T, Brummaier T, Terranegra A, McGready R, Nosten F, Chaussabel D, Al Khodor S. Unveiling the dynamics of the breast milk microbiome: impact of lactation stage and gestational age. J Transl Med. 2023 Nov 6;21(1):784. doi: 10.1186/s12967-023-04656-9. PMID: 37932773
Murugesan S, Al Khodor S. Salivary microbiome and hypertension in the Qatari population. J Transl Med. 2023 Jul 8;21(1):454. doi: 10.1186/s12967-023-04247-8. PMID: 37422685; PMCID: PMC10329805.
Brummaier T, Rinchai D, Toufiq M, Karim MY, Habib T, Utzinger J, Paris DH, McGready R, Marr AK, Kino T, Terranegra A, Al Khodor S, Chaussabel D, Syed Ahamed Kabeer B. Design of a targeted blood transcriptional panel for monitoring immunological changes accompanying pregnancy. Front Immunol. 2024 Jan 30;15:1319949
Jessica Roelands, Peter JK Kuppen, Eiman I Ahmed, Raghvendra Mall, Tariq Masoodi, Parul Singh, Gianni Monaco, Christophe Raynaud, Noel FCC de Miranda, Luigi Ferraro, Tatiana C Carneiro-Lobo, Najeeb Syed, Arun Rawat, Amany Awad, Julie Decock, William Mifsud, Lance D Miller, Shimaa Sherif, Mahmoud G Mohamed, Darawan Rinchai, Marc Van den Eynde, Rosalyn W Sayaman, Elad Ziv, Francois Bertucci, Mahir Abdulla Petkar, Stephan Lorenz, Lisa Sara Mathew, Kun Wang, Selvasankar Murugesan, Damien Chaussabel, Alexander L Vahrmeijer, Ena Wang, Anna Ceccarelli, Khalid A Fakhro, Gabriele Zoppoli, Alberto Ballestrero, Rob AEM Tollenaar, Francesco M Marincola, Jérôme Galon, Souhaila Al Khodor, Michele Ceccarelli, Wouter Hendrickx, Davide Bedognetti. An integrated tumor, immune and microbiome atlas of colon cancer. Nature Medicine, 29, pages1273–1286 (2023)

Souhaila Al Khodor, MSc, PhD

Principal Investigator – Associate Level Director – Reproductive and Perinatal Health Division Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery

Biography

Research Interests

Lab Members

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
Director – Reproductive and Perinatal Health Division
Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery