Bio: Dr. Nasr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, at AUB. She is also leading the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute at AUBMC. Dr. Nasr’s main research interest focuses on Cancer Biology and therapeutics. She specifically works on the development of targeted therapies for human leukemias. She has initiated studies on the targeting of cancer stem cells in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) in CML preclinical models sensitive and resistant to the available treatment and on the potential modeling of CML in the Drosophila melanogaster as an in vivo model to serve as a credible platform for studying pathogenesis and drug screening. Dr. Nasr is also interested in epigenetics modifications and their implication in cancer. The role of microRNA in cancer is the second axis of research in her lab. She has recently published the first study of microRNA expression in Breast cancer tissues in the Lebanese population. Currently, she is investigating the role of circulating microRNA as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in solid cancers. Dr. Nasr’s third axis of research is the role of microbiome and Mediterranean diet in Cancer pathogenesis and response to therapy.

In addition to Cancer research, Dr. Nasr is very interested in Cancer prevention. She is actively engaged in raising awareness of the public and the young generation about cancer, cancer prevention and cancer research. In March 2014, she founded “AMALOUNA” an AUB affiliated educational organization whose aim is to fight cancer by focusing on education, prevention and research. Dr. Nasr recently established the “Students as Researchers Initiative”, a program that aims to engage secondary school students in small research projects to give them insights into what scientists do in the real world and the possibility to consider a career in science.