After two years of postponement, the Ishaq Lab is excited to welcome Dr. Alaa Rabee as a Visiting Researcher from now until December of this year!! This is made possible by a prestigious award to Dr. Rabee from the Central Department of Missions at the Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt, which fosters research collaboration between Egypt and the U.A.

Dr. Rabee joins us from the Desert Research Institute in Cairo, Egypt, where his work focus on researching microbial communities in the digestive tract of ruminants and how they can be used for animal production, bioengineering, and sustainable development. 

Last year, Alaa and I published our first collaborative paper together, based on his work on microbial enzymes from the rumen of sheep and camels and potential for use in biofuel production. We are also working on another, based on microbial activity (transcriptomics) in the rumen of camels on different diets. That project has engaged two undergraduate students in data visualization, including Myra Arshad who started in my lab as an REU student last summer.

During his six month stay, he’ll be working with rumen microbes from various livestock, as well as giving seminars and sharing his experience in research.