Faculty Awarded for Distinctive Contributions to Medical Sciences

Two AUC faculty members in the Department of Chemistry have been recently recognized for their contributions to the science and medical fields.

Hassan Azzazy, professor and chair of the chemistry department, has been awarded the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Award for Arab Researchers in Medical Sciences. Azzazy is the founder of the multidisciplinary research group, Novel Diagnostics and Therapeutics, at the University. A core interest of this group is the development of innovative diagnostics for accurate and affordable detection of biomarkers of infectious agents and cancer.

Recently, the group has developed an automated system for extraction of nucleic acids from blood and received a grant from the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology to develop the first real-time thermal cycler in the region. The group is also home to the AUC team that participates in the annual international biosensor competition at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

"I am greatly honored to receive this prestigious award,” said Azzazy. “It is a great responsibility and adds to my motivation to make substantial contributions to the field of biomedical sciences at both the educational and innovation fronts."

Mohamed A. Farag, food chemistry professor, was recently awarded the Egyptian State Award for Excellence in Medical Sciences for his long research work applying innovative biochemical technologies (metabolomics) in medicine.

Farag is one of the few scientists worldwide who have applied the technology to address complex questions in several different organisms, including nutraceuticals quality control analysis, human disease prognosis and exploration of the biodiversity of soft corals within the Red Sea. The significance of his research findings is evident in more than 4,000 citations of his publications.

“I am greatly honored to have received this award in recognition not only of my past 10 years of work, but rather recognizing all the people with whom I have worked throughout these years — academic colleagues and students,” said Farag. “I want them to see this award as theirs as well.”