Dr Mai Elnaggar

Biography

Dr. Mai ElNaggar is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, where she is undertaking the DeDAMPL project. Her research lies at the interface of natural product chemistry, chemical biology, and peptide synthesis, with a particular focus on the discovery and engineering of bioactive molecules with therapeutic potential.

Dr. Mai earned both her Master's and PhD degrees in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Mansoura University, Egypt. She holds the position of Associate Professor of Pharmacognosy at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. Her academic career has been shaped by several international fellowships and collaborative research programmes. She was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Bradford, where she expanded her expertise in molecular biology and the biosynthesis of natural products. She subsequently received the highly competitive Fulbright Scholarship to undertake research at the University of Southern California, USA, where she broadened her expertise in natural product chemistry, peptide synthesis, and chemical biology while establishing long-term international research collaborations. 

By integrating natural product discovery with synthetic chemistry and chemical biology, her work seeks to uncover new molecular scaffolds, elucidate their biological functions, and develop innovative strategies for the design of new therapeutics inspired by nature.

External Memberships

Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) 

Africademics ambassador, volunteering to offer advice and mentorship for scholarship seekers and applicants from Africa 

Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) full membership

Prizes and Awards

Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship 

Fulbright postdoctoral Scholarship, Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California,Los Angeles, California, USA 

Postdoctoral fellowship at the School of Chemistry & Biosciences, University of Bradford 

Research Overview

My main research interests lie in natural product–based drug discovery, particularly the identification and development of bioactive compounds with therapeutic potential. I am deeply passionate about exploring natural products as a rich source of novel medicines. My early research focused on small molecules derived from plants, including their isolation, structural elucidation, and evaluation of their biological activities.

Over time, my research interests evolved toward interdisciplinary studies at the interface of chemistry and biology, with a particular focus on understanding the biosynthesis of natural products and engineering the enzymes involved in their production to expand and enhance their biosynthetic capabilities. I subsequently developed a strong interest in plant-derived cyclic peptides, focusing on modifying their structures to generate potent and selective enzyme inhibitors during my Fulbright scholarship at Camarero’s lab, University of Southern California.

Current Research

Currently, my research centres on peptide chemistry and the enzymatic machinery involved in peptide biosynthesis, with the broader aim of addressing important unmet medical needs. During my current Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, I am working on the DeDAMPL project (Exploring a Dehydrating/condensation enzyme Domain for a Diversified Antimicrobial Peptide Library), which focuses on the development of a diversified antimicrobial peptide library through the study of a unique non-ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS)-associated enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of dehydroamino acid-containing peptides. The project aims to develop efficient enzymatic strategies for generating structurally diverse antimicrobial peptides with enhanced therapeutic properties.