QU CPH students achieve a number of wins at regional forums

Qatar University College of Pharmacy (QU-CPH) students achieved a number of wins for their research projects which they presented at two regional forums.

PharmD student Alya Babiker and MSc students Marwa El Bashir and Aisha Osman won first place at the “2nd Intravenous and Parenteral Nutrition (IVPN) Symposium” recently held in Abu Dhabi for their research entitled “Antimicrobial Stewardship in Cancer Patients: A Prospective Audit with Follow Up of Antimicrobial Therapy”. The students were supervised by CPH Clinical Lecturer and Lead Primary Investigator of the study Dr Ziad Nasr, CPH Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Practice Dr Kyle Wilby, and Assistant Director of Pharmacy Clinical Services at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) National Center of Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) Dr Shereen El-Azzazy.

3^rd- year pharmacy students Ola Hussein, Dima Kawas and Licia Shamoun won the third place at the 3^rd GCC Pharma Congress recently held in Dubai for their poster entitled “Improving Patient Care Through the Discovery of  Novel Natural Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors with Potential Medicinal Value for Neurodegenerative Disorders”. The students were supervised by QU Director of Quality Assurance Dr Sherief Khalifa, CPH Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Dr Ashraf Khalil, and QU College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Associate Professor at the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences Dr Talaat Youssef.

Commenting on the students’ achievement, CPH Dean Dr Mohammad Diab said: “Research is an important component of the National Health Strategy and CPH is committed to ensuring our students are equipped with the necessary tools and resources to thrive as researchers, both as students and in their future careers. We are always proud to see our students compete and win in front of such prestigious scientific audiences, and these international conferences offer our students another platform to showcase their talents.”

CPH Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Dr Feras Alali said: “CPH puts great emphasis on providing a rich research experience to both graduate and undergraduate students. The College considers research as a core skill to achieve and maintain during the students’ academic journey. We are always confident in the strength of our students at the local, regional and international competitions and their performance was again exemplary.” Dr Ziad Nasr said: “This is an important achievement for QU students which indeed gives them valuable exposure both on the national and regional level. Our students demonstrated excellent presentation and communication skills that received special recognition from the judging panel.”

Student Alya Babiker said: “It was a great experience to attend a conference that allocated a full day for antimicrobial stewardship which was the focus of our research. The judges and our competitors were impressed by the efforts we put for conducting our research on antimicrobial stewardship while we were still undergraduate students and we hope our research findings will help improve the rational use of antimicrobials and reduce the fast increasing resistance. As a research team we are proud that we were able to achieve another win for the College of Pharmacy.”

Student Ola Hussein said: “Having the opportunity to present our research findings and interact with experts from the field in a regional conference was a highly valuable experience which would not have been possible without the support of QU College of Pharmacy and our supervisors.” The students’ projects are funded by the Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) of Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).