# Cancer Biomarker Discovery and Therapeutic Targeting

**Source**: https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/qbri/research-teams-research-group_dr-nehad-alajez
**Parent**: https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/qbri/translational-oncology-research-center

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer type in females worldwide. Despite numerous advances made in the field, BC remains the most common cancer among women, accounting for the highest number of cancer-related mortalities in women. The molecular mechanisms involved in BC pathogenesis have been thoroughly studied, leading to BC classification into three major subtypes. Among those, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 15% to 20% of invasive breast cancers and is characterized by the lack of expression of estrogen receptors (ER), progesterone receptors (PR), and lack of amplification of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). TNBC has been shown to particularly affect women younger in age, and tumors tend to be larger in size, with higher metastasis, relapse frequencies, poorer prognosis, and relatively worse outcome in patients. With the lack of available known targets in TNBC, patients generally do not benefit from endocrine therapy; therefore, surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy remain the primary mode of treatment. Cumulative evidence suggests added benefit for neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in a subset of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients, however, the exact molecular signature predictive of response to NAC remains to be elucidated.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified in recent years to be important players in multiple biological systems, mainly through gene regulation. Differential expression of some miRNAs and lncRNAs have been associated with several types of disease, including cancer. The team’s recent work has identified the lncRNA transcriptional landscape and classified BC into different molecular subtypes, employing lncRNA transcriptome data. The current focus of this research group is to better understand TNBC at the molecular and cellular levels and to identify novel diagnostics and prognostic biomarkers associated with TNBC resistance to cancer chemotherapy, with main emphasis on microRNA (miRNA) and lncRNA employing CRISPR-Cas9 and other state-of-the-art technologies.

## Research Team

### [Dr. Nehad Alajez](https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/qbri/staff/dr-nehad-alajez)

Principal Investigator

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

### [Dr. Ramesh Elango](https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/staff/dr-ramesh-elango)

Postdoctoral Researcher

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

### [Dr. Vishnubalaji Radhakrishnan](https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/staff/dr-vishnubalaji-radhakrishnan)

Postdoctoral Researcher

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

### [Dr. Hibah Shaath](https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/staff/dr-hibah-shaath)

Senior Research Associate

Qatar Biomedical Research Institute

### Dania Fares Awata

PhD Student

### Razan Naceur

PhD Student

### Bushra Yasin Abo Halawa

PhD Student

### Hanan Omar Alja’oni

PhD Student

## Current Projects

Circulating microRNAs as Novel Biomarkers for Early Breast Cancer Detection.

Transcriptome-based RNA Signatures as Diagnostic, Prognostic, and Predictive of Treatment Response in Breast Cancer.

Molecular Alteration in Breast Cancer in Young vs. Old Women.

TNBC Tumor Heterogeneity to Identify the microRNA/lncRNA Molecular Signatures Associated with Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy.

CRISPR/Cas9 Genome Editing Functional Screens to Unravel the Role of miRNA and lncRNA in Resistance to Cancer Chemotherapy.

Transcriptome Analysis of Host Response to SARS-CoV-2.

## Latest Publications

[Pubmed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=alajez&sort=date)

###### [Velayutham, D., Elango, R., Rashid, S., Al-Sarraf, R., Akhtar, M., Ouararhni, K., Jithesh, P. V., & Alajez, N. M. (2025). Somatic Mutation Profiling and Therapeutic Landscape of Breast Cancer in the MENA Region. Cells, 14(22), 1791.](https://doi.org/10.3390/cells14221791)

###### [Abohalawa, B. Y., Eldous, H. G., Elango, R., Vishnubalaji, R., Rashid, S., Ouararhni, K., Al Haj Zen, A., & Alajez, N. M. (2025). Piwi-interacting RNA 775 (piR-775) predicts favorable prognosis and regulates cell cycle and DNA damage response pathways in breast cancer. Biomarker research, 13(1), 139.](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40364-025-00856-1)

###### [Basit, S. A., Alajez, N. M., & Alam, T. (2025). Cholesterol homeostasis and pathway enrichment in post-revascularization recovery. Biomedical engineering online, 24(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-025-01429-x](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12938-025-01429-x)

###### [Shaath, H., Vishnubalaji, R., Ouararhni, K., & Alajez, N. M. (2025). Epigenetic Silencing of miR-218-5p Modulates BIRC5 and DDX21 Expression to Promote Colorectal Cancer Progression. International journal of molecular sciences, 26(9), 4146.](https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26094146)

###### [Awata, D., Radhakrishnan, V., Shaath, H., Elango, R., Rashid, S., Akhtar, M., Azis, T. K. A., Ahmed, I., Ouararhni, K., Al-Shabeeb Akil, A. S., & Alajez, N. M. (2025). Circular RNA profiling identifies circ\_0001522, circ\_0001278, and circ\_0001801 as predictors of unfavorable prognosis and drivers of triple-negative breast cancer hallmarks. Cell death discovery, 11(1), 316.](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41420-025-02576-9)

###### [Thomas, R., Zaqout, A., Meqbel, B., Jafar, U., Vaikath, N. N., Aldushain, A., Naik, A., Shaath, H., Al-Akl, N. S., Adam, A., Moussa, H. Y. A., Shin, K. C., Taha, R. Z., Abukhattab, M., Almaslamani, M. A., Alajez, N. M., Arredouani, A., Park, Y., Abdulla, S. A., El-Agnaf, O. M. A., … Decock, J. (2025). Longitudinal cellular and humoral immune responses following COVID-19 BNT162b2-mRNA-based booster vaccination of craft and manual workers in Qatar. Frontiers in immunology, 16, 1557426.](https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2025.1557426)

###### [Vishnubalaji, R., Awata, D., & Alajez, N. M. (2025). LURAP1L-AS1 long noncoding RNA promotes breast cancer progression and associates with poor prognosis. Non-coding RNA research, 12, 1–9.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncrna.2025.01.006)

###### [Toor, S. M., Aldous, E. K., Parray, A., Akhtar, N., Al-Sarraj, Y., Arredouani, A., Pir, G. J., Pananchikkal, S. V., El-Agnaf, O., Shuaib, A., Alajez, N. M., & Albagha, O. M. E. (2025). Circulating PIWI-interacting RNAs in Acute Ischemic Stroke patients. Non-coding RNA research, 11, 294–302.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ncrna.2025.01.005)

###### [Vishnubalaji, R., & Alajez, N. M. (2024). Disrupted Lipid Metabolism, Cytokine Signaling, and Dormancy: Hallmarks of Doxorubicin-Resistant Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Models. Cancers, 16(24), 4273.](https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers16244273)

###### [Abohalawa, B. Y., Shaath, H., Elango, R., Vishnubalaji, R., Rashid, S., Al-Sarraf, R., Akhtar, M., & Alajez, N. M. (2024). MicroRNAome profiling of breast cancer unveils hsa-miR-5683 as a tumor suppressor microRNA predicting favorable clinical outcome. Cancer cell international, 24(1), 377.](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12935-024-03550-8)