Dr. Mohammad Khanfar Wins SRSF Distinguished Research Award

Dr. Mohammad Khanfar, Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design at the Faculty of Pharmacy has won the Scientific Research Support Fund (SRSF) Distinguished Research Award 2014. Khanfar won the award for his research titled: “Elaborate Ligand-Based Modeling Coupled with Multiple Linear Regression and k Nearest Neighbor QSAR Analyses Unveiled New Nanomolar mTOR Inhibitors”. In his work Khanfar applied an elaborated computational chemistry technique for the discovery of novel and potent mTOR inhibitors. He found out that both olive oil and olive leaves contain interesting compounds that are able to inhibit mTOR protein in nanomolar concentrations. One of these compounds was very effective against several types of breast cancer. Khanfar received the award in a special ceremony held at SRSF’s head-quarter attended by UJ’s Dean of Academic Research Prof. Abeer Al Bawab.