Dr Mai M. Lotfy
About me
Dr. Mai Mohamed El-Sayed Lotfy is a lecturer in the Virology and Immunology Unit at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, in Egypt. She is a molecular virologist and immunologist whose work focuses on next-generation sequencing, molecular diagnostics, cytokine profiling, and biomarker discovery in cancer and infectious diseases.
She has extensive experience in teaching, laboratory research, and scientific writing, and has contributed to studies on breast cancer, viral oncology, and immune responses. Dr. Lotfy is also active in mentoring and training students and early-career researchers.
Mai Mohamed El‑Sayed Lotfy, MD, is a lecturer in the Virology and Immunology Unit, Cancer Biology Department at the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. She is an experienced molecular virologist and cancer immunologist whose research integrates next‑generation sequencing, molecular diagnostics, and immune profiling to advance biomarker discovery and precision oncology in Egypt and other resource‑limited settings.
Dr. Lotfy earned her MD (2021) from the National Cancer Institute, Cairo University with a dissertation on genetic profiling of cell‑free circulating tumor DNA in breast cancer, an M.Sc. in Microbiology (2016) from Ain Shams University focused on HLA associations with HCV outcomes, and a B.Sc. in Microbiology (2007) from Ain Shams University (honors). Since 2010 she has progressed through academic ranks at NCI, CU, from demonstrator to assistant lecturer and now lecturer, combining teaching, research, and laboratory leadership.
Her technical expertise spans targeted and whole‑sample next‑generation sequencing (including cfDNA), conventional and real‑time PCR (gene expression, HRM, viral load), flow cytometry, and multiplex cytokine profiling (Luminex). She used pathway/variant tools such as Ingenuity (IPA/IVA), Ion Reporter, and C‑ImmSim, and has led assay validation, SOP development, and quality management activities in preparation for laboratory accreditation. Dr. Lotfy’s research contributions include multi‑gene and targeted sequencing studies in breast and colorectal cancers, investigations of cytokine networks in cancer and infectious disease, and translational projects that bridge molecular findings with clinical cohorts. She is an author on multiple peer‑reviewed publications and conference presentations, with a Scopus H‑index of 9 and several ongoing manuscripts and projects addressing somatic and germline mutation profiling, immune repertoires in COVID‑19, and the genomic characterization of cancer‑associated pathogens.
Beyond research, she is deeply committed to capacity building and mentorship, teaching master’s courses in virology, immunology, and medical microbiology; supervising graduate projects; and conducting practical workshops on NGS, molecular virology, and immunoprofiling for students and laboratory staff. Dr. Lotfy contributes to major national initiatives including the establishment of a National Virology Laboratory and accredited molecular diagnostics centers, and she has served on multi‑institutional STDF‑funded projects and clinical research collaborations.
An active member of international scientific societies (EACR, AACR) and a peer reviewer for several journals and funding bodies. Dr. Lotfy’s work is characterized by meticulous experimental design, translational focus, and a pragmatic commitment to adapting robust molecular and immunological assays for scalable use in low‑resource healthcare settings. Her current priorities include developing clinically actionable biomarker panels for virus‑associated cancers, improving genomic diagnostic pipelines in Egypt, and training the next generation of scientists in molecular oncology and immunology.
Other Memberships/Affiliations
Degrees:
Asmaa T. Mohamed, Mai M. Lotfy, Gang Bao, Samah A. Loutfy. Integrating Manuka Honey into Breast Cancer Management: An In-Silico and In Vitro Assessment of its Adjunctive Potential in Addressing Cancer and Viral Complications. Under Publication
Islam B. Abouzid, Mai M. Lotfy, Ahmed R. Elbestawy. In-Silico Design of a Full-Length mRNA Vaccine Targeting the Rabies Virus Glycoprotein G. Pathogens. Under Publication
Ehab Abdel Raouf, Mohamed Sherif, Auhood Nassar, Hany K. Soliman, Mai M. Lotfy. The Role of NF-κB and OGG1 in Breast Cancer: Clinical Implications and Patient Correlations. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Abdel Rahman N. Zekri, Auhood Nassar, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Hany K. Soliman, Ahmed Mayla, Noura Atef, Nora Soliman, Mohamed El-Gohary, Mostafa El-Nakib, Mostafa CW, Afaf, Mostafa El berry, el Hussein, Mohamed G. Seadawy. Immune Landscape of Egyptian Patients with Mild SARS-CoV-2 Infection. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Hany K. Soliman, Narden S. Samir, Menna A. Mohamed, Ahmed Reda Bahr, Hanin M. Abd-Elmaged, Menna-Allah Shaker, Abdulrahman W. Shaaban, Islam B. Abouzid, Marina Shokry. Unraveling the Immune Dialogue Between HPV and Microbiota in Anogenital Cancer Development. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Waleed S. Mohamed, Hazem A. El-Sherbiny, Mohamed H. Sharaf, Mohamed S. AboHoussien, Rasha El-Earaky, Marwa M. A. Amer, Mahmoud M Baraka, Mostafa Fetoh El-Hosseny, Mohamed G Seadawy. Genomic Diversity, Phenotypic Characterization of Two Fatal HA-MRSA Infections in ICU/PICU: ST152-t54/ST1153-t504 Vancomycin Treatment Failures. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Ahmed Farahat, Mahmoud M Kamel, Mohamed G. Seadawy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Auhood Nassar, Zeinab K. Hassan, and Abdel Rahman N. Zekri. Genetic Profiling of Cell Free Circulating Tumor DNA in Breast Cancer Patients. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Mohamed G Seadawy, Ahmed Farahat, Mahmoud M Kamel, Auhood Nassar, Amira Salah El-Din, Zeinab K. Hassan, Abdel Rahman N. Zekri. Somatic Alterations of BRCA1/2 and Other DNA Damage Repair-Related Genes in Breast cancer: A Step Toward Precision Medicine in Egypt. In Progress.
Mai M. Lotfy, Abdel Rahman N. Zekri, Waleed S. Mohamed, Auhood Nassar, Amira Salah Eldin, Ahmed M. Mayla, Mohamed S. AboHoussien, Mostafa El-Nakib, Mohammed El Gohary, Zeinab F. Abdallah, Nora Atef, Mohamed G Seadawy. Cytokine Profiles in COVID-19 Patients: Insights from Cancer Patients. In Progress.
M Lotfy M, Ebrahim NA, El-Kassas M, Omar Abdel-Aziz A, Abdelhamid Omran D, Abdelfatah D, Barakat AB, Salah El-Din Youssef A, Nassar A, K Soliman H, N Zekri AR. Mapping HLA class I and II allele associations with hepatitis C related liver disease progression in an Egyptian cohort. Discover Oncology. 2026 Dec;17(1):712.
Seadawy MG, Hussein AA, Baraka MM, Imran AA, El-Hosseny MF, Lotfy MM, Zekri AR. Design, Establishment and Accreditation of Biosafety Level 3 Laboratory Using the Egyptian Experience for Sustainable High-Containment Capacity in National Biological Defence Structure. Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity. 2026 Apr 6.
Mayla AM, Mohamed WS, Zekri AR, Gouda NA, Lotfy MM, Seadawy MG, Elgohary MA, Abdallah ZF. Co-infections and reactivation of some herpesviruses (HHV) and measles virus (MeV) in Egyptian cancer patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Journal of the Egyptian National Cancer Institute. 2025 Dec;37(1):1-3.
Seadawy MG, Lotfy MM, Saeed AA, Ageez AM. Novel HER2-based multi-epitope vaccine (HER2-MEV) against HER2-positive breast cancer: In silico design and validation. Human Immunology. 2024 Jul 1;85(4):110832.
Youssef AS, Zekri AR, Mohanad M, Loutfy SA, Abdel Fattah NF, Elberry MH, El Leithy AA, El-Touny A, Rabie AS, Shalaby M, Hanafy A, Lotfy MM, El-sisi ER, El-Sayed GS, Nassar A. Deleterious and ethnic-related BRCA1/2 mutations in tissue and blood of Egyptian colorectal cancer patients and its correlation with human papillomavirus. Clinical and Experimental Medicine. 2023 Dec;23(8):5063-88.
Nassar A, Zekri A-RN, Kamel MM, Elberry MH, Lotfy MM, Seadawy MG, Hassan ZK, Soliman HK, Lymona AM, Youssef ASE-D. Frequency of Pathogenic Germline Mutations in Early and Late Onset Familial Breast Cancer Patients Using Multi-Gene Panel Sequencing: An Egyptian Study. Genes. 2023; 14(1):106.
Auhood Nassar, Abdel Rahman N Zekri, Mostafa H Elberry, Ahmed M Lymona, Mai M Lotfy, Mohamed Abouelhoda, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef. Somatic Mutations Alter Interleukin Signaling Pathways in Grade II Invasive Breast Cancer Patients: An Egyptian Experience. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2022 Nov 26;44(12):5890-5901.
Youssef, A.S.E.-D.; Abdel-Fattah, M.A.; Lotfy, M.M.; Nassar, A.; Abouelhoda, M.; Touny, A.O.; Hassan, Z.K.; Mohey Eldin, M.; Bahnassy, A.A.; Khaled, H.; Zekri, A.R.N. Multigene Panel Sequencing Reveals Cancer-Specific and Common Somatic Mutations in Colorectal Cancer Patients: An Egyptian Experience. Curr. Issues Mol. Biol., 44, 1332-1352, 2022.
Nassar A, Lymona AM, Lotfy MM, Youssef AS, Mohanad M, Manie TM, Youssef MM, Farahat IG, Zekri AR. Tumor Mutation Burden Prediction Model in Egyptian Breast Cancer patients based on Next Generation Sequencing. Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention: APJCP. Jul 1;22(7):2053-9, 2021.
Auhood Nassar, Mohamed Abouelhoda, Osman Mansour, Samah A. Loutfy, Mohamed M. Hafez, M. Gomaad, Abeer Bahnassye, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mai M. Lotfy, Hoda Ismail, Ola S. Ahmed, Ahmeda, Amany Abd-Elhameed Abou-Bakr, Abdel-Rahman N. Zekri. Targeted Next Generation Sequencing identifies somatic mutations in a cohort of Egyptian breast cancer patients. Journal of Advanced Research. 2020.
Abdel-Rahman N Zekri, Mohamed EL Kassas, Reem Mostafa Hassan, Marwa Mohanad, Reham Mohamed Gabr, Mai M Lotfy, Rania A Talaat Abdel-zaher, Abeer A Bahnassy, Ola S Ahmed. The possible role of Dickkopf-1, Golgi protein-73 and Midkine as predictors of hepatocarcinogenesis: a review and an Egyptian study. Scientific reports, 5156, 2020.
Abdel-Rahman N. Zekri, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mai M. Lotfy, Reham Gabr, Ola S. Ahmed, Auhood Nassar, Nehal Hussein, Dalia Omran, Eman Medhat, Salam Eid, Marwa Mahmoud Hussein, Maha Yahia Ismail, Faris Q. Alenzi, Abeer A. Bahnassy. Circulating Serum miRNAs as Diagnostic Markers for Colorectal Cancer. Plos one. 11 (5), e0154130, 2016.
Zekri AN, Youssef AS, El-Desouky ED, Ahmed OS, Lotfy MM, Nassar AA, Bahnassey AA. Serum microRNA panels as potential biomarkers for early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma on top of HCV infection. Tumor Biology 37 (9), 12273-12286, 2016
Abdel-Rahman Zekri, Hosny Salama, Eman Medhat, Sherief Musa, Hanan Abdel-Halcem, hanan Abdel Hafez, ola S Ahmed, Abeer A Bahnassy, Mai M lotfy and Khaled S Zachariah. The impact of repeated autologous infusion of haematopoietic stem cells in patients with liver insufficiency. Stem Cell Res 6 (1), 118, 2015.
Zekri AR, Salama H, Medhat E, Bahnassy AA, Morsy HIM, Lotfy MM, Ahmed R, Darwish T, Marei MS. IL28B rs12979860 gene polymorphism in Egyptian patients with chronic liver disease infected with HCV. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2014; 15 (1 7):7213-8.
Salama H, Zekri AR, Medhat E, Al Alim SA, Ahmed OS, Bahnassy AA, Lotfy MM, Ahmed R, Musa S. Peripheral vein infusion of autologous mesenchymal stem cells in Egyptian HGV-positive patients with end-stage liver disease. Stem Cell Res They. 2014 May 5 (3), 70.
Abdelrahman Zekri, Hosny M Salama, Abeer Bahnassy, Shereen M Al Alim, Ola Ahmed, Mai Lotfy, Eman Medhat, Rasha Ahmed, Sherief Muso. mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplantation in Patients with End Stage Liver Disease improve Hepatic fibrosis: 1654. Hepatology 58, 1005A, 2013.
Conference Abstracts
Mai M. Lotfy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Auhood Nassar, Abdel Rahman N Zekri. Head-to-Head comparison of BRCA1/2 Mutational Profile in Egyptian Colorectal Cancer patients versus Breast Cancer patients. Abstract was presented virtually at EACR, 2021.
Mai M Lotfy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Auhood Nassar, Mahmoud M Kamel, Zeinab K Hassan, Amany A Abou-Bakr, Ahmed M Farahat, Mohamed M Gomaa, Abdel Rahman N Zekri. Identification of Somatic BRCA1/2 mutation profile in tissue-based and liquid biopsy-based next generation sequencing in Egyptian patients with breast cancer. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, 2021.
Auhood Nassar, Ahmed M. Lymona, Mai M. Lotfy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Abdel-Rahman N. Zekri. Tumor Mutation Burden of Egyptian Breast Cancer Patients based on Next Generation Sequencing. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, 2021.
Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mai M Lotfy, Auhood Nassar, Abdel-Rahman N Zekri. The mutational pattern of cell cycle checkpoints and regulators in Egyptian colorectal cancer patients. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, 2021.
Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Auhood Nassar, Mai M Lotfy, Mohamed A Abdel-Fattaf, Abdel-Rahman N Zekri. Therapeutic molecular targets in Egyptian colorectal cancer patients: Time for ethnic personalized medicine. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, 2020.
Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mai M Lotfy, Auhood Nassar, Abdel-Rahman N Zekri. Mutational profiling of DNA repair and mismatch repair genes in the Egyptian colorectal cancer patients using targeted DNA sequencing. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, 2020.
Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Ahmed O. Touny, Zeinab K. Hassan, Mohammed Mohey Eldin, Mai M. Lotfy, Auhood Nassar, Ola Sayed, Abdel Rahman N Zekri. Profiling of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in Egyptian Colorectal Cancer Patients via Next Generation Sequencing. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, San Diego Convention Center • San Diego, CA, (24 March- 29 April) 2020.
Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Ahmed O. Touny, Zeinab K. Hassan, Mohammed Mohey Eldin, Mai M. Lotfy, Auhood Nassar, Ola Sayed, Abdel Rahman N Zekri. Somatic mutation profiling of Colorectal Cancer by targeted Next Generation Sequencing. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, San Diego Convention Center • San Diego, CA, (24 March- 29 April) 2020.
Auhood Nassar, Mohamed Abouelhoda, Osman Mansour, Samah A. Loutfy, Mohamed M. Hafez, M. Gomaa, Abeer Bahnassy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mai M. Lotfy, Hoda Ismail, Ola S. Ahmed, Amany Abd-Elhameed Abou-Bakr, Abdel-Rahman N. Zekri. Targeted Next Generation Sequencing identifies somatic mutations in a cohort of Egyptian breast cancer patients. Abstract was presented virtually at AACR, San Diego Convention Center • San Diego, CA, (24 March- 29 April) 2020.
Abdel Rahman N. Zekri, Osman Mansour, Samah A Loutfy, Mohamed M. Hafez, M. Gomaa, Abeer Bahnassy, Mai M. Lotfy, Amira Salah El-Din Youssef, Mohamed Abouelhoda, Ola S Ahmed, Auhood Nassar. Genetic variants frequently detected in Egyptian breast cancer tumors: Comprehensive cancer panel by ion torrent DNA sequencing technology. Cancer Research.2019; 79 (13), 4243-4243.
Abeer A Bahnnasy, Ibrahim Malash, Nasr Al-Lahlouby, Osman Mansour, Sabry Shaarawy, Mona S Abdellateif, Hend Yousef, Mai M Lotfy, Rabab Gaafar, Abdel-Rahman N Zekri. Genetic profiling of breast cancer confirms a pivotal role of EGFR pathway in the development of acquired resistance to tamoxifen. AACR March 29-April 3, 2019; Atlanta, GA.
A Zekri, AS Youssef, GE Esmat, I Hammad, EA Ahmed, O Ahmed, A Nassar, MM Lotfy et al. Serum MicroRNAs as differential markers and a molecular therapeutic target for HCV associated liver disease. Hepatology.2013; 58, 410A-411A.
Abdelrahman Zekri, Amira S. Youssef, Gamal E. Esmat, Ibtisam Hammad, Entsar A. Ahmed, Ola Ahmed, Auhood Nassar, Mai Lotfy, Abeer Bahnassy. Conference Paper: 420: Serum MicroRNAs as differential markers and a molecular therapeutic target for I-ICV associated liver disease. Hepatology, 58, 410A-411A, 2013.