Dr. Wael Rabeh received his PhD in Biochemistry in the lab of Prof Paul F. Cook in the field of enzymology where he characterized the last enzymatic reaction of the cysteine biosynthetic pathway in Salmonella typhimurium. In 2005, Dr. Rabeh joined the Structural Genomic Consortium (SGC) at the University of Toronto as a post-doctoral fellow, where he characterized the 3D structure of human proteins with medical relevance using X-ray crystallography. To further expand his expertise in the field of protein chemistry, in 2007, Dr. Rabeh joined the lab of Dr. Gergely Lukacs at McGill University for the characterization of a membrane channel that is the main cause of Cystic Fibrosis.

Dr. Rabeh’s research is devoted for the characterization of proteins’ structure and mechanism to understand their biological function. Major area of his research focus is devoted for the characterization of disease-causing mechanism of proteins with medical relevance to assist in the discovery and design of new therapeutics using proteins’ structural information and computer simulation. Protein targets include human Hexokinase 2 that is required for tumor initiation and growth. As for his contribution in the field of bioluminescence, the laboratory of Dr. Rabeh is characterizing the color producing mechanism of the luciferase reaction from different species with different colors of light.

During his doctoral studies, Shady studied iron acquisition mechanisms in marine bacteria under the supervision of Dr. Carl Carrano. He showed that iron-binding ligands (a.k.a. siderophores) produced by algal-associated bacteria provided algae with bioavailable iron tthrough photochemical reactions in exchange for organic carbon. After his Ph.D., Shady continued his research on microbial interactions at the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography under the supervision of Dr. Ginger Armbrust. His research identified a widespread mode of signaling between a group of phytoplankton (Figure 1) and associated bacteria, whereby some bacteria produced a hormone that stimulated algal cell division, photosynthesis and carbon fixation. In 2015, Shady joined NYU Abu Dhabi as an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Program.