Noura Al-Hajaj.

Background
Noura received her MScA degree in Biotechnology at McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 2010. She started her summer research project at Dr. Maysinger’s lab in May 2009. In December 2010 she became a research assistant in the lab.

Research highlight
Noura is interested to study (i) how different nanoparticles are being internalized into different cell lines (ii) how does the microenvironment surrounding cells affects nanoparticles uptake and (iii) how does some low-generation dendrimers (G0 and G1) exert anti-inflammatory-like effect in stressed/ activated cells. She is investigating that by studying the changes in signal transduction pathways inside the cell i.e the activation of kinases (PI3K, MAPK, etc), the translocation of transcription factors (NFKB, FOXO, etc) and the release of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-a, IL1ß, etc) when cells exposed to various insults/ nanoparicles.

Publications

1. Wound-Healing with Mechanically Robust and Biodegradable Hydrogel Fibers Loaded with Silver Nanoparticles. Neibert K, Gopishetty V, Grigoryev A, Tokarev I, Al-Hajaj N, Vorstenbosch J, Philip A, Minko S, Maysinger D. Advanced Healthcare Materials [in press, published online July 12, 2012]
2. Design and evaluation of multifunctional nanocarriers for selective delivery of coenzyme Q10 to mitochondria. Sharma A, Soliman GM, Al-Hajaj N, Sharma R, Maysinger D, Kakkar A. Biomacromolecules. 2012 Jan 9;13(1):239-52.
3. Thermosensitive dendrimer formulation for drug delivery at physiologically relevant temperatures. Castonguay A, Wilson E, Al-Hajaj N, Petitjean L, Paoletti J, Maysinger D, Kakkar A. Chem Commun (Camb). 2011 Nov 28;47(44):12146-8.
4. Short ligands affect modes of QD uptake and elimination in human cells. Al-Hajaj NA, Moquin A, Neibert KD, Soliman GM, Winnik FM, Maysinger D. ACS Nano. 2011 Jun 28;5(6):4909-18.