Dr. Hamed Aly’s research is mainly focused on design, synthesis, and elucidation the mechanisms of flavins and other heterocyclic derivatives as antitumor agents against different tumor cell lines. His Lab has integrated recent techniques of computational drug design and chemical synthesis of highly active novel 5-deazaflavins, flavin, and alloxazine analogs against CCRF-HSB-2, KB, MCF-7, and HeLa tumor cell lines. This research was established by collaboration with Taisho Japanese pharmaceutical company for in vitro and in vivo biological screening. These collaborators have merged their expertise of biological evaluation and Dr. Aly’s chemical synthesis and in silico drug design to delineate the key outcomes for lead optimization. Throughout this research the most potentially active analogs against MCF-7 (human breast cancer cells) was obtained. Many of the discovered compounds target the PTK receptor in a highly specific manner (selective protein tyrosine kinase inhibitors) which can inhibit multiple features of cancer cells, including proliferation, survival, invasion, and angiogenesis. Additionally, Dr. Aly’s research was extended to cover the discovery of bioactive 7-oxycoumarin derivatives involving computational drug design and synthesis of different derivatives followed by biological screening for their in vitro inhibitory activities. Many of these compounds revealed high affinity and selectivity for MAO-A isoenzyme, compared to clorgyline and moclobemide, showing Ki values in pM concentration range as potent and selective MAO-A inhibitors. Moreover, most of the target compounds display high potency toward MAO when tested in vivo. The molecular modeling study which was carried out on MAO-A and MAO-B structures proved new information about the enzyme−inhibitor interaction and the potential therapeutic application of 7-oxycoumarin scaffold. Most recently, Dr. Aly got intensive experience in the field of structure activity relationship (SAR) and synthesis of potent allosteric modulators for the Cannabinoid Receptors (CB1 and CB2) and he has published many articles revealing the Key SAR for allosteric modulation of the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1) and he merged this research with his expertise in Virtual Screening to get new hits as CB1 and CB2 modulators. Currently Dr. Aly have mentored eight master pharmacy students for synthesis and design of various heterocyclic analogs as potential antitumor and anti-HCV agents. Therefore he can be considered as independent creative researcher in both sides of practical and theoretical basis. The outcome of Dr. Aly’s researches, he has 8 research projects (5 current and 3 completed) of a total fund of $ 1.7 Million. Two of them as PI and six as CO-Investigator, and he has published more than 25 articles in peer-reviewed journals in the field of Medicinal Chemistry, including J. Med. Chem., Bioorg. Med. Chem, Eur. J. Med. Chem, and ChemMedChem, in addition to being a peer reviewer in many of these journals.

Design, synthesize, and elucidate the mechanisms of flavins and other heterocyclic derivatives as antitumor agents against different tumor cell lines, Computational drug design, Chemical synthesis