Souhaila Al Khodor, MSc, PhD

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
Director – Maternal and Child Health Department
Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery

Email: salkhodor@sidra.org
Phone: +974 40037397

Biography

Dr. Al Khodor is the Director of Maternal and Child Health Department in the research branch at Sidra Medicine, Qatar, since July 2019 and an Investigator-associate level since January 2015. Dr. Al Khodor is in charge of the Microbiome and Biomarkers discovery lab. She received her bachelor’s degree in Medical Lab technology from the Faculty of Public Health at the Lebanese University in 2001. Soon after, she started her master’s degree in Microbiology and Immunology at the American University of Beirut (2002-2004). Dr. Al Khodor received her second master’s degree and PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA (2005-2008). Before joining Sidra, Dr. Al Khodor worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Signaling systems Unit, laboratory of Systems Biology, at the National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA.
Dr. Al Khodor is an adjunct Assistant Professor at the College of Health & Life Science in Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences in Qatar University.
Dr. Al Khodor has over 48 peer-reviewed publications. She serves as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Translational Medicine since 2017.
Research Interests

The laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarker discovery team, studies the role of the human microbiome in health and disease with a special focus on maternal and child health.

In collaboration with the clinical teams, we are building repositories of samples collected from patients including pregnant women, their babies and kids with various chronic diseases and pathological conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel disease, nephrotic syndrome and vitamin D deficiency. The team have developed various protocols to assess how microbial dysbiosis and/or microbial metabolites contribute to disease onset and progression. We also integrate the metagenomics data with other omics datasets (ie transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, etc.) to identify biomarkers that can serve as a signature for disease onset, progression or response to treatment.
Lab Members

Selected publications (†co-first, *corresponding):

Kumar M, Saadaoui M, Elhag DA, Murugesan S, Al Abduljabbar S, Fagier Y, Ortashi O, Abdullahi H, Ibrahim I, Alberry M, Abbas A, Ahmed SR, Hendaus MA, Kalache K, Terranegra A, Al Khodor S* Omouma: a prospective mother and child cohort aiming to identify early biomarkers of pregnancy complications in women living in Qatar. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2021 Aug 19;21(1):570. doi: 10.1186/s12884-021-04029-4.
Kumar M, Murugesan S, Singh P, Saadaoui M, Elhag DA, Terranegra A, Kabeer BSA, Marr AK, Kino T, Brummaier T, McGready R, Nosten F, Chaussabel D, Al Khodor S*. Vaginal Microbiota and Cytokine Levels Predict Preterm Delivery in Asian Women. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021 Mar 4;11:639665. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.639665.
Singh P, Rawat A, Alwakeel M, Sharif E, Al Khodor S*. The potential role of vitamin D supplementation as a gut microbiota modifier in healthy individuals. Sci Rep. 2020 Dec 10;10(1):21641. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77806-4.

Souhaila Al Khodor, MSc, PhD

Principal Investigator – Associate Level Director – Maternal and Child Health Department Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery

Biography

Research Interests

Lab Members

Principal Investigator – Associate Level
Director – Maternal and Child Health Department
Laboratory of Microbiome and Biomarkers Discovery