It is time to develop nanomedicines for women’s health:
An interdisciplinary and EDI-based approach
Dr. Hagar Labouta is an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba. She is a drug delivery and nanomedicine researcher. She is currently the secretary of the Young Scientist Committee, and a young associate editor in the Drug Delivery and Translational Research. She is the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Interstellar Award from New York Academy of Science, Nanoscience Curriculum Award from Taylor Institute, Innovation and Career Development Award by the Biomedical Engineering Society and Apotheker and Jacob Prize for outstanding PhD research quality in pharmaceutical sciences in Germany. Her scientific contributions include the design and characterization of a wide range of nanocarriers and drug delivery systems, as well as developing static and dynamic organ-on-a-chip models and protocols to assess nanoparticle interaction with biological barriers.
Are we embracing the full potential of nanomedicine?
Nanomedicine has enabled new therapeutic modalities and several nanoparticle-based therapies have been granted approval for clinical use based on their outstanding clinical outcomes. However, nanomedicine faces several challenges that hinder the realization of its full potential. This is because our ability to predict the behaviour of nanoparticles in the biological environment is still limited. To work towards enhancing the clinical translation of nanocarriers, Dr. Labouta’s team focuses on studying the kinetics of interaction and the binding efficiencies of nanoparticles with different cells, proteins and other biomolecules. Supported by several techniques including nanoparticle tracking analysis, and integrated fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging infrastructure, Dr. Labouta’s team quantifies these nanoscale events in complex biological media. Another research gap that is limiting the clinical translation of several nanocarriers is the lack of understanding of mechanical forces on nanoparticles interaction with biological barriers. In the body, nanoparticles are exposed to biological cells and tissues under dynamic fluid flow conditions. Therefore, her team develops dynamic organ-on-a-chip models and employs them to define a general trend or specified engineered parameters of nanoparticles prompting the kinetics of nanoparticle interactions with biological barriers while mimicking physiological conditions.
Is it only cancer and COVID-19 that we need to fight?
There are still many clinical challenges that require nanomedicine-based solutions. Dr. Labouta’s team uses nanotechnologies, microfluidics and organ-on-a-chip models to develop safe and effective therapies for the treatment of maternal and fetal diseases during pregnancy; these are populations that suffer great disparities especially in rural communities. More specifically, her team designs new nanoparticles to carry drugs that are essential for the mother or the baby and they carefully characterize them in the lab as well as evaluate them under conditions that simulate human pregnancy. This is an area that is understudied and there are lots of questions that haven’t been answered yet — which is why she wants to use her expertise to answer these questions.
Why an interdisciplinary approach?
Dr. Labouta is an interdisciplinary scientist whose identity has been shaped by her unique research journey that started in Egypt before moving to Germany and then landing in Canada. She holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy and MSc in Pharmaceutics. Her PhD was in pharmaceutical nanotechnology, Saarland University (Germany). She got several Postdoctoral trainings in drug delivery, physical chemistry, biomedical engineering and nanoscience. These positions were at different institutes: Helmholtz institute (Germany), and Departments of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering, University of Calgary (Canada). Living in different continents, working in different labs and collaborating with scientists across the globe has contributed to her interdisciplinary identity. She believes that working at the boundary between scientific disciplines is the best approach to solve complex problems. This is also reflected on how she selects her team with different scientific backgrounds, e.g. biochemistry, nanoscience, chemistry, pharmacy, mechanical engineering and molecular biology. They also have different cultural backgrounds which enrich the diversity of her lab.
How to engage researchers from diverse backgrounds in a safe interdisciplinary environment?
Being a Hijabi and a woman from an underrepresented group with Egyptian roots, Dr. Labouta is familiar with many barriers to the inclusion of minorities into the scientific community. She is a big advocate for EDI and has committed to developing several EDI framework and initiatives. She has led a diverse team of researchers to develop a sociocultural framework to promote inclusion of underrepresented students in meaningful science conversations. She has developed another framework for developing authentic research environments to enable equitable student engagement and the development of a safe interdisciplinary environment where everyone is respected and valued. Dr. Labouta is also committed to engage the young generation of scientists to nanomedicine research. She is engaged in several outreach activities with schools in Egypt, Canada and USA to promote interest in science especially among young girls. She believes that a good scientist is the one who trains better scientists.
Relevant references:
Abostait and Tyrrell et al. (2022). Molecular Pharmaceutics, 19, 11, 3757-3769. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.molpharmaceut.2c00216
Tse et al. (2022), Biomaterials Science, 2022 (18). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2BM00293K
Shojaei et al. (2021) Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA)-Molecular Basis of Disease, 1867. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbadis.2021.166131
Upreti et al. (2022). Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 24, 5610-5617. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1CP03968G
Abdelkarim et al. (2023). Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery, 1, 13-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425247.2023.2152000
