Dr Afaf El-Sagheer
Synthesis of modified phosphoramidite monomers including neutral backbones, modified aptamers, therapeutic oligonucleotides and chemically modified mRNA for applications in biology and medicine
Profile
Dr Afaf El-Sagheer is an expert in solid-phase synthesis of heavily modified oligonucleotides, including their HPLC purification and characterisation. She also has extensive expertise in the synthesis of therapeutic oligonucleotides, as well as in their biophysical and biochemical evaluation and targeted delivery.
Afaf has pioneered click chemistry and other synthetic methods to assemble novel, long and modified biocompatible DNA, novel, long, and highly modified biocompatible DNA, CRISPR/Cas RNA, and mRNA constructs for custom gene synthesis and their applications in biology and medicine. Several of the reagents she developed are commercially available from Glen Research and the work was highlighted on National DNA Day and in research outreach.
After completing her PhD at the University of Southampton, Afaf moved back to Egypt to become Professor of Bio-Organic Chemistry at Suez University. She has worked as a senior Research Fellow with Professor Tom Brown in Southampton and Oxford since 2006, on modified oligonucleotides synthesis, Long modified DNA and mRNA and their biological applications. In 2023, Afaf became an Assistant Professor of Chemical Biology at the University of Southampton.
She has authored more than 190 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Science, Nature Chemistry, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, JACS, PNAS and Angewandte Chemie with over 8,800 citations and an h-index of 52 (Google Scholar). Her scholarly contributions also include numerous patents and book chapters.
In addition to her many collaborations with academics around the world, Afaf has extensive experience of collaboration with companies including GSK, AstraZeneca, Dstl and LGC. She has acted as a consultant, won prizes and Fellowships and been invited speaker at conferences and events in UK, Europe, USA and China.
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