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Manal Ahmed. Credit: Laura M. Lombardía / CNIO
She is a visiting scientist in the ninth edition of the Women for Africa Foundation’s ‘Science by Women’ program
Her proposal aims to modify the patient’s immune cells so that they attack fibroblasts, cells in the connective tissue outside the tumor which promote to tumor growth
Manal Ahmed has been granted two patents in Egypt and she has led a project to develop diagnostic kits for several diseases
As soon as she started medical school, Manal Ahmed felt the appeal of immunology, “because it’s like a war. A war in which we fight against viruses, bacteria, even our own cells; actually, in cancer we fight against our own cells”. That is why this researcher at the Institute for Medical and Clinical Studies at the National Research Center (NRC) in Egypt has been working in this field for 25 years. And that is why, when she applied to come to the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) for the ninth edition of the Women for Africa Foundation’s Science by Women program, her proposal was to focus her stay towards her project to develop a CAR-T therapy – which modifies the patient’s own cells – to improve the results of this type of immunotherapy in solid tumors, in which it has only achieved an effectiveness of 29%.
Attacking the tumor from its environment
Her approach to achieve this is to modify the patient’s immune cells so that they attack not the tumor itself, but an element of its ‘microenvironment’ that favors tumor progression: fibroblasts. These cells contribute to the tissue that connects organs and have been found to be involved in resistance to CAR-T therapies. “My intention is to develop a CAR-T against one of the proteins that activates fibroblasts – the protein FAB – to neutralize that resistance,” explains Ahmed. She hopes that her visit to CNIO helps her to take first steps in that direction.
Since her arrival in June, Ahmed has learned about the work of the H12O-CNIO Cancer Immunotherapy Clinical Research Unit, the Monoclonal Antibodies Core Unit, the Histopathology Core Unit, “a new field for me”, and the Confocal Microscopy Core Unit. In September, she will spend several weeks at the Molecular Diagnostics Unit.
A doctor since childhood, karateka and creative
Driven from childhood by her curiosity for science and the effort to satisfy it, a primary school teacher gave her the nickname “Dr. Manal”, which was immediately adopted by all those close to her, including her mother. She decided to study medicine “to help people stop suffering. Especially people without resources who could not afford treatment. I wanted to learn how to cure them”.
When she finished her studies, which she combined with the practice of kumite –competitive karate combat–, she led her career to research, “because it is the first step towards medicine. It starts with a blurry idea, in which, step by step, the picture becomes clearer.” And she feels primarily attracted by the process of creation: “If you give me a problem, I look for all the necessary tools to solve it with accuracy. But if you ask me to repeat it, I might lose interest”.
Patents and innovation to solve social challenges
In Egypt, she has been granted two patents: one for developing monoclonal antibodies against aflatoxin B1, a toxin that predisposes to liver tumors. Another for a vaccine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in chickens. This bacterium also infects humans. It usually attacks immunocompromised people and often causes infections in hospitals.
“I am convinced that we must contribute something new and valuable to humanity. That’s what I’m looking for,” says Ahmed. She has also worked on the development of diagnostic kits for various diseases as a principal investigator for one of the National Challenge Projects (STDF – NCP), a program of the Egyptian Science and Technology Development Fund to promote innovative solutions from the scientific field that can be applied immediately to address major social needs.
Manal Ahmed’s concerns do not stop in the laboratory. In her career, she realized that “the problems of hospitals or the research world were not technical in nature. When they are technical, the people involved in them strive to improve and solve them. Most of the problems have to do with management.” To understand them better and to be able to address them, she completed an MBA at Ain Shams University (Egypt).
A place for African science
She is concerned that innovation takes too long to reach patients, and she voices the problems in her environment in this regard: “In African countries, many companies limit themselves to manufacturing generics with foreign products already accepted in the United States or Europe –by the FDA or the EMA, respectively–. Shareholders make easy profits with them, and when you introduce a new product to them, no one supports you.” Ahmed considers it essential to change the mentality, “also of authorities”.
As a consultant for her country’s drug approval agency, the Central Administration for Pharmaceutical Affairs (CAPA), she often found that “some of its members would approve or renew the license only for drugs previously accepted or renewed by the U.S. and European agencies. I confronted them many times demanding that they conduct their own evaluation of applications. But I was younger than them, and a woman also.”
For this reason, she appreciates as essential the training in leadership, communication and management that the Science by Women program also provides, as well as the exchange of experiences and knowledge among the beneficiaries of the program.