Exciting news from the Czubryt Lab…
Mohamed Ali Al Shaaban, a medical student from Arabian Gulf University (AGU) was awarded the top prize for best research presentation at the 6th Annual International Scientific Conference for GCC Medical Students in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates. It was Al Shaaban’s second such award in 3 years, winning both times for work performed in Dr. Mike Czubryt’s lab at St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre, where he studied under the University of Manitoba’s B.Sc. (Med.) program.
Al Shabaan, in his sixth year at AGU, was among more than 1,600 students from the Gulf, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, India, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, the UK and Iran. His work focused on the identification of a protein that blocks the ability of heart cells to grow abnormally, a process called “hypertrophy.” Extra copies of this protein blocked heart cell growth, while the loss of this protein prompted a spontaneous increase in cell size. Future studies will focus on exploiting this protein to prevent hypertrophy in cardiac patients. This work had been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.