Biomedical Sciences

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After graduating at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University (TU), Egypt in 2000, I had worked as a teaching assistant at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at TU while studying for masters (2001-2003). In 2003, I joined CSU as a PhD candidate studying the chemistry, analysis and pharmacological activities (antioxidant and anticancer activities) of plant polyphenols from olive mill waste. I completed my PhD in 2007. Afterwards, I worked with the Phenol Research Group at CSU as a postdoctoral fellow till January 2008. I have been appointed as a lecturer in Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics at CSU in February 2008.

Professional Links

• Royal Australian Chemical Institute (Charter Chemist)
• Groupe Polyphenols (Member)
• American Chemical Society (Member)
• The Egyptian Pharmaceutical Association (Member)
• The Egyptian Pharmaceutical Syndicate (Member)

Teaching

My primary goals as a teacher are to:

• Help students to enjoy science and appreciate its role in life
• Instil into students intellectual curiosity and scientific research
• Develop students critical and scientific thinking skills
• Help to introduce competent graduates for profession, industry, and research
• Instil into students interest for life-long learning

Current subjects taught

• Pharmacology (BMS340)
• Therapeutics (PHM430)
• Pharmacokinetics (PHM341)
• Complementary and Alternative Medicine (PHM405)

Research

Several epidemiological studies have correlated Mediterranean diet with low incidence of coronary diseases and some types of cancer. Vegetables, fruits, herbs, olive oil and red wine are the main ingredients of the Mediterranean diet. The common dominator amongst these substances is plant phenols (polyphenols). There is more than 8000 polyphenols identified in plant tissues. Their ubiquitous presence and large structural variations constitute an evergreen resource of biomolecules for food and pharmaceutical applications. With the introduction of the oxidative hypothesis in pathogenesis of many diseases, the antioxidant activity of polyphenols has become a fertile area of research. Polyphenols have shown a wide array of bioactivities in laboratory studies. However, little is known about their performance in biological systems.

My research interests cover polyphenols from origin (plant or plant-derived products) to destination (mammalian metabolism and excretion) as summarized in figure 1. Different chemical analysis techniques are applied to understand the changes happening to polyphenols from the very first step of phyto-extraction to later stages of sample preparation, storage, analysis artefacts, chemistry of bioassays, metabolism in consumer, and changes in different biological matrices. This can help understanding how polyphenols exert their beneficial activities, or answering the long debated question: whether polyphenols in essence have any beneficial effects!

Figure 1. Summary of different aspects of my polyphenol research.

Current Research and Research Students

1. Canola Cake polyphenols (Postdoctoral Fellow: Professor Tareq Masud and Honours Student: Alice Song)
2. Anticancer activities of Camel's milk and urine (PhD student: Mohamed O'haj Haimed)
3. How can dietary antioxidants fight cancer? (Masters student: Rania Ismail)
4. Biopharmaceutical studies on verbascoside. (Masters student: Nermeen El Fiky)
5. Bioactivity guided isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from Pakistani botanicals (PhD students: Samia Inayatullah and Ihsan-ul-Haq)

Publications

• Obied, H.K., Allen, M.S., Bedgood, D.R., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2005). Investigation of Australian olive mill waste for recovery of biophenols. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53, 9911-9920
  
• Obied, H.K., Allen, M.S., Bedgood, D.R., Prenzler, P.D., Robards, K. and Stockmann, R. (2005). Bioactivity and analysis of biophenols recovered from olive mill waste. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 53, 823-837.
  
• Obied, H.K., Bedgood Jr., D.R., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2007). Bioscreening of Australian olive mill waste extracts: Biophenol content, antioxidant, antimicrobial and molluscicidal activities. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 45, 1238-1248.
  
• Obied, H.K., Bedgood Jr., D.R., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2007). Chemical Screening of Olive Biophenol Extracts by Hyphenated Liquid Chromatography. Analytica Chimica ACTA, 603, 176-189.
  
• Obied, H.K., Karuso, P., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2007). Novel Secoiridoids with Antioxidant Activity from Australian Olive Mill Waste. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55, 2848-2853.
  
• Obied, H.K., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2008). Potent antioxidants from Australian Olive Mill Waste, Food Chemistry, 111,171-178.
  
• Obied, H.K., Bedgood Jr., D.R., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2008), The Effect of Processing conditions, Pre-storage Treatment and Storage Conditions on the Phenol Content and Antioxidant Activity of Olive Mill Waste. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56, 3925-3932.
  
• Obied, H.K., Prenzler, P.D., Ryan, D., Servili, M., Taticchi, A., Esposto S. and Robards K. (2008) Biosynthesis and Biotransformations of phenol-conjugated oleosides secoiridoids from Olea europaea L. Natural Product Reports, 25, 1167-1179.
• Obied, H.K., Bedgood Jr., D.R., Mailer, R., Prenzler, P.D. and Robards, K. (2008) Impact of Cultivar, Harvesting Time and Seasonal Variation on Content of Biophenols in Olive Mill Waste. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 56, 8851-8858.
  
• Kendall M., Batterham M., Obied H.K., Prenzler P.D., Ryan D. and Robards, K. (2009) Zero effect of multiple dosage of olive leaf supplements on urinary biomarkers of oxidative stress in healthy humans. Nutrition accepted for publication in August 2008
• Obied, H.K., Prenzler P.D., Konczak, I., Rehman A. and Robards, K. Chemistry and Bioactivity of Olive Biophenols in some Antioxidant and Anti-proliferative in vitro Bioassays. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 2009, 22 , 227.

Book Chapters

• Obied, H.K, Prenzler, P.D., Ryan, D., Robards, K. Antioxidant content assays - total phenolic content In Protocols for in vitro analysis of antioxidant activity edited by Schiach K. M. and Finely J. Published by Wiley (submitted)