Member Profile
Nouar Qutob
Country of origin: Palestine Currently in: Palestine, Ramallah General field of specialization: Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology-
Degrees
2012 Doctorate Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology -
Current Research Activities
Structural, Cell and Molecular Biology
I focus on using my genomic skills to identify the genetic changes that underlie cancer types in Palestine. To do this I aspire to build a unique tumour bank, which we will be using to perform comprehensive sequencing. I aim to use my expertise as a stepping stone to the next phase of my research career emphasizing both genetics and functional studies. My overall goal is to integrate genetics with functional investigation of mutations to study cancer by using high-throughput approaches to functionally evaluate genes that are frequently mutated among Palestinians using somatic cell knockout technologies in cancer cells. This will provide a proof of concept, as the long-term goal of this project is to provide a foundation and tool set for the expansion of this application to functionally evaluate the numerous mutated genes that will be identified in common cancers among Palestinian patients.
Publications resulting from Research:
• Sana G, Madigan JP, Gartner JJ, Fourrez M, Lin J, Qutob N, Narayan J, Shukla S, Ambudkar SV, Xia D, Rosenberg SA, Gottesman MM, Samuels Y, Gillet JP. Exome Sequencing of ABCB5 Identifies Recurrent Melanoma Mutations that Result in Increased Proliferative and Invasive Capacities. J Invest Dermatol. 2019 Sep;139(9):1985-1992
• Kalaora S, Wolf Y, Feferman T, Barnea E, Greenstein E, Reshef D, Tirosh I, Reuben A, Patkar S, Levy R, Quinkhardt J, Omokoko T, Qutob N, Golani O, Zhang J, Mao X, Song X, Bernatchez C, Haymaker C, Forget MA, Creasy C, Greenberg P, Carter BW, Cooper ZA, Rosenberg SA, Lotem M, Sahin U, Shakhar G, Ruppin E, Wargo JA, Friedman N, Admon A, Samuels Y. Combined Analysis of Antigen Presentation and T-cell Recognition Reveals Restricted Immune Responses in Melanoma. (2018). Cancer Discov. 8(11):1366-1375.
• Alon M, Emmanuel R, Qutob N, Bakhman A, Peshti V, Brodezki A, Bassan D, Kosloff M, Samuels Y. Refinement of the endogenous epitope tagging technology allows the identification of a novel NRAS binding partner in melanoma. (2018) Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 31(5):641-648.
• Yu Y, Schleich K, Yue B, Ji S, Lohneis P, Kemper K, Silvis MR, Qutob N, van Rooijen E, Werner-Klein M, Li L, Dhawan D, Meierjohann S, Reimann M, Elkahloun A, Treitschke S, Dörken B, Speck C, Mallette FA, Zon LI, Holmen SL, Peeper DS, Samuels Y, Schmitt CA, Lee S. (2018). Targeting the Senescence-Overriding Cooperative Activity of Structurally Unrelated H3K9 Demethylases in Melanoma. Cancer Cell. 33(4).
• Qutob, N; Masuho, I; Alon, M; Emmanuel, R; Cohen, I; Di Pizio, A; Madore, J; Elkahloun, A; Ziv, T; Levy, R; Gartner, JJ; Hill, VK; Lin, JC; Hevroni, Y; Greenberg, P; Brodezki, A; Rosenberg, SA; Kosloff, M; Hayward, NK; Admon, A; Niv MY; Scolyer, RA; Martemyanov, KA; Samuels, Y; (2018) RGS7 is recurrently mutated in melanoma and promotes migration and invasion of human cancer cells. Scientific Reports, 8:653.
• Kalaora, S; E, Barnea; E, Merhavi-Shoham, N ; N, Qutob, N, Teer; N, Shimony; J, Schachter; S.A, Rosenberg; M.J, Besser; A, Admon; Y, Samuels; (2016) Use of HLA peptidomics and whole exome sequencing to identify human immunogenic neo-antigens. Oncotarget, 7(5):5110-7.
• Levin, L1; Srour, S; Gartner, J; Kapitansky, O; Qutob, N; Dror, S; Golan, T; Dayan, R; Brener, R; Ziv, T; Khaled, M; Schueler-Furman, O; Samuels, Y; Levy, C; (2016) Parkin Somatic Mutations Link Melanoma and Parkinson's Disease. Journal of Genetics and Genomics, 43(6):369-79.
• R Inzelberg, Y Samuels, E Azizi, N Qutob, L Inzelberg. (2016). Parkinson disease (PARK) genes are somatically mutated in cutaneous melanoma. Neurology Genetics, 2 (3), e70.
• Arafeh, R; Qutob, N; Emmanuel, R1; Keren-Paz, A; Madore, J; Elkahloun, A; Wilmott, JS; Gartner, JJ; Di Pizio, A; Winograd-Katz, S; Sindiri, S; Rotkopf, R; Dutton-Regester, K; Johansson, P; Pritchard, AL; Waddell, N; Hill, VK; Lin, JC; Hevroni, Y; Rosenberg, SA; Khan, J; Ben-Dor, S; Niv, MY; Ulitsky, I; Mann, GJ; Scolyer, RA; Hayward, NK; Samuels, Y; (2015) Recurrent inactivating RASA2 mutations in melanoma. Nature Genetics, 47(12):1408-1410.
• R Emmanuel, N Qutob, V Peshti, D Bassan, Y Samuels. (2015). Use of the Endogenous Epitope Tagging approach to study melanoma driver genes. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. 28(6):769.
• Valer Gotea, Jared J. Gartner, Nouar Qutob, Laura Elnitski,and Yardena Samuels.(2015). The functional relevance of somatic synonymous mutations in melanoma and other cancers. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 28(6): 673–684.
• Dutton-Regester K, Gartner JJ, Emmanuel R, Qutob N, Davies MA, Gershenwald JE, Robinson W, Robinson S, Rosenberg SA, Scolyer RA, Mann GJ, Thompson JF, Hayward NK and Samuels Y. A highly recurrent RPS27 5’UTR mutation in melanoma. (2014). Oncotarget. 5(10): 2912-2917.
• Prickett TD, Zerlanko BJ, Hill VK, Gartner JJ, Qutob N, Jiang J, Wunderlich J, Gutkind JS, Rosenberg SA and Samuels Y. Somatic Mutation of GRIN2A in Malignant Melanoma Results in Loss of Tumor Suppressor Activity via Aberrant NMDAR Complex Formation. (2014). J Invest Dernatol, 134.
• Qutob N, Balloux F, Raj T, Liu H, Marion de Proce M, Trowsdale J and Manica A. (2012). Signatures of historical demography and pathogen richness on MHC class I genes. Immunogenetics. 64(3):165-175.
Current profession
Current professional activities type:ResearchAdministrationTeachingI am the Vice President of the Palestinian Forum for Medical research; a non-for-profit organization that was formed in 2010 with the main objective to support all those involved in basic, clinical and/or scientific research relating to any aspect of medicine. The forum aims to encourage and further such research by encouraging inter-collaborative projects among Palestinian scientists, hosting workshops for Palestinian scientists and establishing a common shared resources bank that can benefit medical researchers.
Affiliations
Palestinian Forum for Medical Research -
Other Awards
Sep 2008Cambridge Trust Ph. D ScholarshipA full scholarship to pursue my PhD degreeSep 2007Karim Rida Said Foundation Mphil ScholarshipA full scholarship to pursue my Mphil degree