Manel Ben Hammouda

Clinical reviewer Nov 2019 -

MDPI

- Reviewing scientific and clinical data for MDPI Medicina and Clinical Medicine Journals 
- Interacting with reviewers and editors

Postdoctoral Associate May 2019 -

dermatology, Duke University

The general project that I am working on actually is Study Gene regulation of epithelial cell proliferation and differentiation (Important aspect in our study is to improve new skin regeneration techniques and to create experimental skin disease models with gene transduced keratinocytes).

Postdoctoral Fellow Jun 2018 - Apr 2019

University of Tokyo

In this position, which is a collaboration between the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunisia, I  worked on 2 different projects;

1- The “ role of RAD9 protein and its relationship with p53 during the senescence process” project.

2- The evaluation of the therapeutic potential of Snail Slime in (DMBA) / croton oil-induced skin cancer in Swiss albino mice.

In this study, we showed that snail slime has differential effects according to the cell line targeted. Indeed, snail slime inhibited proliferation, and migration of both melanoma cell lines IGR-39 and SK-MEL-28, it induces apoptosis for only SK-MEL-28 cells, whereas it inhibited adhesion of IGR39 cells via αvβ3, α2β1 and α5 integrins. On the other hand, snail slime abolished the invasion of IGR-39 cells. Altogether, these results suggested that snail slime could be a specific targeted therapy of certain cancer types.

PhD student Sep 2013 - May 2018

Facultad de Biología, University of Murcia

Thesis project: combined treatments for the therapy of epithelial cancers such as breast cancer and essentially melanoma.

First, we studied the promotion of apoptosis mediated by E2F1 in estrogen receptor-α-negative breast cancer cells. Despite the ERα-negative status of the MDA-MB-231 cells, we observed that 4OHT efficiently up-regulated Erα in these cells and that this upregulation promoted E2F1-mediated cell growth. Because E2F1 plays a dual role in cell growth/apoptosis, we designed a therapy incorporating TMCG/DIPY to take advantage of the elevated E2F1 expression in these 4OHT-treated cells. 4OHT enhances the toxicity of TMCG/DIPY in these ERα-negative breast cancer cells. This work was the subject of an article published in BMC cancer journal.

In the second part of my thesis, we worked on Lebein, a desintegrin purified from Macrovipera lebetina snake venom. I performed many experiments to study the signaling pathways of this molecule as a therapy for melanoma cancer. This has been the subject of an article published in toxins journal.

Finally, we purified the Macrovipecetin, a novel C-type lectin, from the same snake venom, and we determined its primary sequence. We proposed to study the Macrovipecetin effect on SK-MEL-28 human melanoma cells. So, the idea was to sensitize melanoma cells, known for their resistance to cisplatin drug, by using the combination of this drug and the Macrovipecetin molecule to enhance the anti-tumoral effect found with the C-type lectin molecule alone. This work was a subject of an article published in BBA journal.

Besides research, I performed many other activities such as collaborating with other labs, supervising, and monitoring two undergraduate students for summer internships and two graduate students for research internships.

University of Murcia 2013 - 2018

Field of study: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Degree: PhD degree

Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar 2010 - 2012

Field of study: Biochemistry and Technobiology
Degree: Master's degree

I carried out my Master's degree in the laboratory of animal physiology and Biochemistry. My Master's project title is The impact of Hexachlorobenzene treatment on different metabolisms in Wistar rats;

 Here you can find the summary of my master's degree work;

Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) is an organochlorine pesticide widely distributed in the environment. Chronic exposure of HCB to humans leads to several effects, such as triggering porphyria, microsomal enzyme induction, thyroid dysfunctions, neurological symptoms, and immunological disorders. This drove us to study its effect on carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolisms after subchronic treatment in WISTAR rats. Since the liver is a central complex with various utilities involved in numerous metabolic processes, we focused our work mainly in the liver and serum to be able to detect the toxicity of this organochlorine pesticide. Our results showed that HCB affects protein, lipid, and carbohydrate metabolisms. Moreover, HCB induced insulin resistance through gluconeogenesis/glycogenesis process, which causes diabetes type 2.

Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar; 2006 - 2010

Field of study: Life and Earth Sciences
Degree: Bachelor degree