Fatme Al-Anouti

Fatme Al-Anouti
Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Science /Public Health
Zayed University, UAE

Biography

Dr. Fatme Al Anouti is an assistant professor at Zayed University Department of Natural Science and Public Health, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. She holds a MSc. Degree in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and another in Clinical Chemistry. Her PhD thesis work; for her doctoral degree in Biochemistry; focused on the development of RNA interference based drug design strategy for treatment of Toxoplasmosis. Her current research looks into the biochemical and genetic basis of Vitamin D Deficiency among UAE nationals. She has recently been awarded the Abu Dhabi Medical Distinction Award for research contributions in public health field. Another research area she focuses on is the microbial profile in Abu Dhabi urbanized beach sand and testing for their antibiotic sensitivity/resistance. She has numerous publications and presentations at international conferences and is a member of many professional organizations like the American Society for Microbiology, American Association of Clinical Chemistry and the UAE Genetic Diseases Association.

Research Interest

Being a professional with academic degrees in different disciplines, has opened a vast channel of research interests for me. I am interested in conducting research within the area of Biochemical, Chemical and Microbiological techniques for Clinical Diagnosis and Public Health (Risk assessment, Infection Control and Public Safety). Diagnostic Molecular Microbiology and Chemistry: I am currently leading a project about Extending Identification of Invasive Bacteria in Marine Samples by Rapid PCR-Based Assays to Ballast Water Biofilms in collaboration with Professor Robert Baier (University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA). I am also involved in research about the Environmental Impact of Urbanization within Abu Dhabi on the Chemical and Microbial Profile of Man-Made Beaches. To this regard, we are also monitoring microbial diversity and changes in chemical parameters after construction developments by the beach area. This is a unique research because of little and limited investigations in this area within the UAE. The introduction of exotic microbial species into new ecosystems is a probable pathway for the establishment of non-native species that may have pathogenic effects or disturb a system’s natural biodiversity. The objective of this research is to evaluate the natural biodiversity and possible threats of exotic species introductions from ship ballast tank water and biofilms using rapid PCR-based assay as an efficient, time-saving, and accurate way to detect bacterial pathogens using multiplex PCR analysis. The next step will attempt to detect five “benchmark” species of marine bacteria shown to be associated with the biofilms of ballast tanks in ships travelling the world’s oceans: Pseudomonas sp., Comamonas terrigena, Achromobacter spp., and Vibrio alginolyticus,comparing the PCR results from regional harbor sites to those already obtained using immunofluorescent reagents for biofilms from 3 ships on trans-oceanic routes.