Amina Zoubeidi

Amina Zoubeidi is a Canadian research scientist and prostate cancer researcher. She's a scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and an associate professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. During her tenure at UBC, Zoubeidi and her research team developed the first drug that targets and blocks BRN2, thus stopping Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) tumours and creating a possible treatment for the previously thought incurable disease.[1][2]

Amina Zoubeidi
Academic background
EducationBsc, Mohammed V University
M.Sc. Université du Québec à Montréal
PhD, Université de Montréal
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of British Columbia
Vancouver Coastal Health

Early life and education

Zoubeidi earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the Mohammed V University before moving to Montreal to earn her graduate degrees from the Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal.[3]

Career

Zoubeidi joined the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor in 2010.[4] In the same year, she was also the recipient of a Prostate Cancer Foundation Durden Foundation Young Investigator Award to fund her research on determining the function of Hsp27 in cancer treatment.[5] She continued her research into Hsp27 and received funding from the Michael Smith Career Investigator Award for her project Adaptive Stress Response Signaling Driving Treatment Resistance and Metastasis in Cancer.[6]

While serving in her role as an assistant professor, in collaboration with Vancouver Coastal Health, Zoubeidi continued to search for a cure for prostate cancer and led her research team to numerous discoveries. Zoubeidi and her research team designed a mouse model of Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer (NEPC) to identify that BRN2 was essential for NEPC to develop.[7] She firstly used genome editing CRISPR technology to freeze the gene producing the protein driving the emergence of NPEC for the first time.[8] Following this discovery, she earned a three-year Translation Acceleration Grant from Prostate Cancer Canada and Movember to fund a project to develop blockers of BRN2, a gene linked to the growth of aggressive NPEC.[9][10] She subsequently became the first female scientist to earn a Translation Acceleration Grant from Prostate Cancer Canada and Movember[11] and later earned the 2018 UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award.[12]

By 2019, Zoubeidi and her research team developed the first drug that targets and blocks BRN2, thus stopping NEPC tumours and creating a possible treatment for the previously thought incurable disease. They also modified the drug so it could be tested in clinical trials on humans.[11][13] Similarly, her project The role of the lineage oncogene ASCL1 in treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.[14] She was eventually promoted to the rank of Full professor as a result of her "contributions within the UBC community and her outstanding research career to date."[15]

References
  1. Bishop, Jennifer L.; Thaper, Daksh; Vahid, Sepideh; Davies, Alastair; Ketola, Kirsi; Kuruma, Hidetoshi; Jama, Randy; Nip, Ka Mun; Angeles, Arkhjamil; Johnson, Fraser; Wyatt, Alexander W.; Fazli, Ladan; Gleave, Martin E.; Lin, Dong; Rubin, Mark A.; Collins, Colin C.; Wang, Yuzhuo; Beltran, Himisha; Zoubeidi, Amina (January 2017). "The Master Neural Transcription Factor BRN2 Is an Androgen Receptor–Suppressed Driver of Neuroendocrine Differentiation in Prostate Cancer". Cancer Discovery. 7 (1): 54–71. doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-1263. PMID 27784708. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  2. Thaper, Daksh; Munuganti, Ravi; Nouruzi, Shaghayegh; Kumar, Sahil; Kim, Soojin; Sivak, Olena; Aguda, Adeleke; Ganguli, Dwaipayan; Vahid, Sepideh; Puca, Loredana; Beltran, Himisha; Zoubeidi, Amina (July 2019). "Abstract 1295: First-in-field small molecule inhibitors targeting BRN2 as a therapeutic strategy for small cell prostate cancer". Cancer Research. 79 (13): 1295. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2019-1295. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
  3. "Dr. Amina Zoubeidi". prostatecentre.com. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  4. "New Faculty Profile—Dr. Amina Zoubeidi". urology.med.ubc.ca. 2010. p. 6. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  5. "Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Awards". prostatecentre.com. Prostate Cancer Foundation. April 13, 2010. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  6. "Faculty of Medicine wins large share of Michael Smith Career Investigator Awards". med.ubc.ca. July 6, 2012. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  7. "UBC-Vancouver Coastal Health researchers find gene linked to growth of aggressive prostate cancer". med.ubc.ca. November 25, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  8. "Dr. Amina Zoubeidi leads identification of gene linked to growth of aggressive neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC)". prostatecentre.com. January 30, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  9. "Research grant award news: Dr. Zoubeidi (PCF Challenge) and Dr. Wyatt (Movember Discovery)". prostatecentre.com. October 6, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  10. "Movember Foundation and Prostate Cancer Canada team up to turn research into results". prostatecancer.com. July 26, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  11. "Translating research to treat prostate cancer". med.ubc.ca. April 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  12. "Dr. Zoubeidi receives 2018 UBC Faculty of Medicine Distinguished Achievement Award". prostatecentre.com. September 12, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  13. "First of its kind treatment for incurable prostate cancer". prostatecancer.com. February 8, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  14. Trujillo Sanchez, Camilo (January 30, 2020). "Faculty members awarded more than $27 million in fall 2019 CIHR project grants". med.ubc.ca. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  15. "Dr. Zoubeidi promoted to Professor". prostatecentre.com. October 31, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
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