Dr. Hesham M Korashy, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at College of Pharmacy at Qatar University, with the students.
Doha: The second place winners at National Science Promotion Programme (NSPP) - 2021 shared their experiences.
The second place winning project was, “The Effect of the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor Inhibition on the CTLA-4 Immune System in Colon Cancer Stem Cells” by Dr. Hesham M. Korashy, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at College of Pharmacy QU.
The two high school students who got the opportunity to work on the project were Maha Mohammed Al Meraghi and Hajar Abdulla Al Jumaily from Al Arqam Academy for Girls.
The aim of NSPP is to promote research culture and increase the research capacity by endorsing tools such as “Learning by Doing” and “Hands-On experience.”
By using such tools in the high school education system, students will be encouraged to do research and benefit Qatar. Through this process, students will get an opportunity to experience research under faculty mentors’ supervision from the university. Simultaneously, the NSPP grant will provide training to prepare the students to join the university.
Discussing about the topic of the research, Dr. Hesham said: “The research aims to investigate the novel molecular mechanism of the growth and proliferation of cancer stem cells in human colon cancer, which is one of the most common cancers in Qatar. Targeting this type of cancer is one of the priorities of Qatar’s national vision 2030. The mechanism is trying to inhibit a particular cellular pathway known as Aryl hydrocarbon receptor, which is an enzyme inside the body known to play a role in activating carcinogens and activating the probation and the growth of the cancer stem cells.”
“Our study hypotheses that by inhibiting this AhR pathway we will inhibit the growth and proliferation of cancer stem cells by targeting an immune checkpoint such as CTLA-4. Hopefully, by the end of this project, we will be able to open the gate to a novel anti-cancer medication that helps in the treatment of this cancer,” he added.
Speaking with the two students to ask about their experience, they said, “It is the first time for us to experience working in labs of this level. We have labs at school, and we do experiments and research but mostly related to our study or googling and looking for information. We are familiar with the research but not real-time experiments. This was once in a lifetime opportunity for us during which we enjoyed and learnt a lot.”
While sharing their opinion on NSPP, the students said, “This is a great programme. This is a programme of great importance for students because we gained a lot of experience, the unique experience that we won’t get from any other place except this scientific programme.
“This type of research programme is a wonderful option, especially for students who desire to pursue scientific fields of study. They might have some research experience that will help them become qualified and ready for college.”
