JOHNSON CITY (April 29, 2020) – Dr. Tuqa Alkhateeb, a third-year Ph.D. student in East Tennessee State University’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, was selected as a recipient of the Star Research Achievement Award by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM).
The Star Research Award is intended to recognize excellence in critical care research and high-quality original investigative research. Accompanying the award was the opportunity to present her research findings at the SCCM 49th Critical Care Congress held earlier this year.
In addition, the Congress published Alkhateeb’s abstract in Critical Care Medicine. Her abstract was selected as one of the top 64 scoring abstracts from over 1,700 submitted abstracts.
The title of both the oral presentation and published abstract is “S100A9-Induced Reprogramming of Myeloid Cells During Sepsis.” As there are currently no molecular-based treatments for sepsis, Alkhateeb speculates that the results of her study could “inform a new molecular target for treating sepsis immunosuppression.”
Alkhateeb earned her pharmacy degree in 2015 from the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and obtained her pharmacy equivalent (Pharm.D.) from the United States. She also earned an M.S.in biology (biomedical sciences concentration) from ETSU.
She is a student member of Dr. Mohamed Elgazzar’s lab in Quillen College of Medicine’s Center of Excellence in Inflammation, Infectious Disease & Immunity (CIIDI). Elgazzar is an associate professor in ETSU’s Department of Internal Medicine.
For more information about CIIDI, visit www.etsu.edu/com/ciidi.