Winner. Scientist of the Year 2020

Khairiya Ohaida

Academic title, degree: Ph.D.
Fields of science: Tumor Biology, Molecular Biology
Research interest: Breast cancer
Institution: Sirte University, Ibn Sina Teaching Hospital
Position: Lecturer, Doctor and Researcher
Country: Libya

MB, ChB, MSc, surgical skills and sciences, Ph.D. in tumor biology breast cancer Queen Mary University of London.

Research projects:

• Incidence of bowel injury during access techniques: veress needle, Hasson and visiport technique.

• Outcome and evaluation of work-up for oesophagogastric cancer.

• Objective Assessment of Acquisition of Surgical Skills Following Royal College of Surgeons Core Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery Course.

• Claudin-low breast cancers: BRCA1 regulates claudin-1 and claudin-6.

• Inflammatory cells infiltrate DCIS microenvironments are affected by myoepithelial cells phenotypes.

• Down-regulation of galectin-7 in DCIS and its relationship to αvβ6.

• T regulatory cells in the DCIS microenvironment induce myoepithelial apoptosis: a role in transition of DCIS to invasive disease?

• Outcome and evaluation of work-up for oesophagogastric cancer. 

• Objective Assessment of Acquisition of Surgical Skills Following Royal College of Surgeons Core Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery Course. 

• Analysis of the inflammatory profile of DCIS in relation to altered myoepithelial cell phenotype and disease progression.

Presentations:

Parts of projects were presented in different conferences, among them: 13 Milan Breast Cancer conference, 2011; William Harvey day, London 2010; Triple Negative conference in London; William Harvey day, London 2011; IMPAKT, Breast Cancer, Brussels, Belgium 2012; Keystone Symposia, Dublin, Ireland, 2012; William Harvey day London, 2013.

Publications:

• Myoepithelial control of the inflammatory microenvironment promotes transition of DCIS to invasive disease.

• T regulatory cells in the DCIS microenvironment induce myoepithelial apoptosis: a role in transition of DCIS to invasive disease?

• The role of Galectin-7 in normal and DCIS-associated myoepithelial cells: predicting progression of DCIS.

• Claudin-low breast cancers: BRCA1 regulates claudin-1 and claudin-6. Inflammatory cells infiltrate DCIS microenvironments are affected by myoepithelial cells phenotypes.

• Analysis of the inflammatory profile of DCIS in relation to altered myoepithelial cell phenotype and disease progression.

• The role of Galectin-7 in normal and DCIS associated with myoepithelial cells: predicting progression of DCIS.

• Defining molecular signature to personalize management of patients with early breast cancer.

Humanitarian work:

• President of Al Berr organization for humanitarian work, Libya (2017-2019).

• Worked with Crisis Management Initiative Organization in Finland (CMI), 2017-2019.

Dr. Khairiya Ohaida has been working on the role of galectin-7 in Ductal Carcinoma in-situ (DCIS) of the breast. She is the first to identify that galectin-7, whilst strongly expressed by normal myoepithelial cells in the breast, is lost in a subset of DCIS. This has potentially important implications, as galectin-7 has critical modulatory function relevant to the normal tumor-suppressor role of myoepithelial cells.

Dr. Ohaida has used a novel in-vitro system with both primary myoepithelial cells removed from normal breast tissue, and established myoepithelial cell lines. Using gene knock-down approaches she has shown that loss of galectin-7 renders myoepithelial cells more susceptible to apoptosis. This has major implications for the understanding of how DCIS progresses to invasive disease, since the myoepithelial cells are lost in this process but it has not previously been shown how this may occur.

On the basis of her findings, she has proposed a multi-step hypothesis for the progression of DCIS to invasive breast cancer, which could be used in the clinic to predict how likely an individual’s DCIS is to progress. This is important, as recent reports in the UK and USA have indicated that DCIS is over-diagnosed and there is a subgroup of disease unlikely to progress during a woman’s lifetime. Thus, this original finding has the potential to stratify patients for more tailored management of their disease. This is a very exciting and entirely novel finding.