Saja Adel Fakhraldeen

Assistant Research Scientist - Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research – Salmiya, Kuwait

Biography

Saja Adel Fakhraldeen is an assistant research scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR). Dr. Fakhraldeen completed her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Cancer Biology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2015, and her B.S. in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2009. As an undergraduate, Dr. Fakhraldeen worked on examining the role of genetics on DNA damage repair. Specifically, she studied the effect of the tumor suppressor p53 on the repair of DNA double strand breaks via homologous recombination. During her graduate career, Dr. Fakhraldeen's thesis work revolved around the identification of a novel isoform of an RNA binding protein, and characterization of its role in breast cancer development and progression. In collaboration with Gilson, Inc, Dr. Fakhraldeen developed a new immunoprecipitation-based method for reproducible and high-throughput identification of global RNA binding partners for RNA binding proteins. Currently, Dr. Fakhraldeen is working on developing KISR's genomic sequencing capabilities, and collaboratively investigating new methodologies for extraction and identification of biologically active material from the marine environment. Her project specifically focuses on metagenomic sequencing of marine microbiota in Kuwait Bay.