BDS, PhD, PGCert (HELT)
Senior Lecturer
- About
-
- Email Address
- rasha.abueid@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 555155
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 437351
- Office Address
Office A107, Institute of Dentistry
Office 3:47 / 08 Institute of Medical Sciences
Lab 4:51 Institute of Medical SciencesForesterhill
Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD- School/Department
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
Biography
I qualified as a dentist in 2001 (University of Jordan). During my years of study, I developed a keen interest in Oral Pathology, and in particular in the pathology of malignant and premalignant oral lesions. I therefore joined a postgraduate research program in Oral Pathology at the University of Birmingham, England. The focus of my research was the quantification of oral cancer and pre-cancer growth patterns using digital imaging. I successfully completed my PhD in 2005, and worked as a Research fellow in the same institute.
In 2006, I joined the academic staff at the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Jordan as an Assistant Professor in Oral Pathology.
In 2009 I joined the Academic staff of the newly established Dental School at the University of Aberdeen.
During my time in Aberdeen, I studied for my PGCert in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, and I completed the course in July 2011 and became a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
In 2011, I was successful in securing a prestigious research fellowship from the King Hussein Institute for Biotechnology and Cancer to conduct state of the art research in the field of cancer immunology in USA. My fellowship was split between the National Cancer Institute/ National Institutes of Health and Georgia Regents University (Currently Augusta University), where I later became an Assistant Research Scientist. The focus of our research group was T cell Biology and the modulation of the immune system as part of cancer immune therapy.
In October 2016, I re-joined the Academic staff at the University of Aberdeen Dental School as a Senior Lecturer in Oral Sciences. My primary research focus is T cell biology, head and neck cancer immunology in addition to applications of digital pathology.
Qualifications
- PhD Dentistry (Oral Pathology)2005 - University of BirminghamThesis title: Analysis and Quantification of Oral Cancer and Precancer growth patterns
- PGCert Higher Education Learning and Teaching2011 - University of AberdeenDissertation title: Tooth Model Carving as a Method for Teaching Tooth Morphology
- BDS Dentistry2001 - University of Jordan
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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- Postgraduate Research Coordinator at the Institute of Dentistry (December 2017- current date)
- Chair of the Postgraduate Student Liaison Group at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition (April 2019-current date)
- Academic lead for Oral Biology at the Instiute of Dentistry (July 2019-current date)
- Member of the Curriculum Management Committee at the Institute of Dentistry (July 2019-current date)
- Lead Cancer Research Group at the Institute of Dentistry
- Member of the Research Committee at the Institute of Dentistry (October 2016-current date)
- Member of the Postgraduate Research Management Group at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition (December 2017- current date)
- Member of the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition Industrial Liaison Committee (November 2018-current date)
- Chair of the Research Committee at the Institute of Dentistry (April 2018- January 2020)
- Member of the Executive Committee at the Institute of Dentistry (April 2018- January 2020)
- Member of the PGR Marketing working group at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition (February 2021-current date)
- Member of the Ethical Review Board sub committee at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition (February 2021-current date)
- External Memberships
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- Fellow of the Academy of Higher Education, UK (July 2011 till current date)
- British Society for Immunology
- Scottish Society of Cytomics
- The Association of Science Educators in Dentistry (ASEiD), formerly the Association of Basic Science Teachers in Dentistry (ABSTD)
- British and Irish Society of Oral Medicine
- Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- American Association of Cancer Research
- The British Association for Cancer Research
Latest Publications
Advances in Raman spectroscopy for characterising oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders
Expert Reviews in Molecular Medicine, vol. 26, e25Contributions to Journals: ArticlesDental Student Readiness to Treat Special Care Patients upon Graduation
Special Care in Dentistry, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 869-882Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPrediction models for hormone receptor status in female breast cancer do not extend to males: further evidence of sex-based disparity in breast cancer
Breast Cancer, vol. 9, no. 1, 91Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEngaging undergraduate medical and dental students with academic medicine: the Aberdeen INSPIRE summer school
PloS ONE, vol. 18, no. 11, e0293633Contributions to Journals: ArticlesHow confident are dental students in their ability to treat special care patients after they graduate?
48th ADEE meetingContributions to Conferences: Posters
- Research
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Research Overview
My main research interests are in digital pathology and cancer immunology and immunotherapy in different cancer types.
I have a special focus on various aspects of head and neck cancer. This includes the objective diagnosis and quantification of oral premalignant and malignant lesions using digital pathology in addition to cancer immunology and immune therapy.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Biomedical Sciences, Dentistry.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Research Specialisms
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Pathology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
Morphological and Immunological Characterization of HPV Positive Head and Neck Cancer and Pre-cancer
(Funded by Friends of Anchor, NHS Endowment)
The incidence of head and neck cancer (HNC) has increased in UK both in males and females and is still on the rise with the highest rates reported in Scotland. This increase is attributed to changes in risk factors such as alcohol and tobacco consumption in addition to human papilloma virus (HPV) infections. HPV infection affects younger age groups and is therefore associated with HNC and premalignant lesion diagnoses at younger ages than traditionally reported.
Premalignant lesions predispose to malignant transformation and should be monitored to aid in the early detection of malignant transformation. Classically, premalignant lesions were classified into mild, moderate and severe epithelial dysplasia. This classification system suffered from subjectivity leading to noticeable discrepancies in inter-and intra-examiner consistency in diagnosing these lesions. Therefore, there is a move towards simpler more reproducible classification systems that divide premalignant lesions into low and high grades.
To aid the classification dilemma and ultimately improve the ability to predict malignant changes, several studies were performed that applied reproducible and objective parameters to analyse tissue sections from different pathological entities. Our group used morphological features such as the complexity of the epithelial connective tissue interface (ECTI), and descriptors of cell shape and size to characterize oral cancer and precancer in addition to normal oral mucosa (Abu Eid and Landini, 2003; 2005). It is hoped that such criteria can be implemented in the design of new classification systems that will better predict malignant transformation potential and provide guidelines for clinical management.
Despite advances in treating HNC, the mortality rate is still high which is mainly due to the late diagnosis of these cases. Therefore, there is great need for developing diagnostic tools that aid in early detection. Additionally, the development of novel therapies is essential. Among the advances in cancer treatment, cancer immunotherapy is one of the most important developments. HNCs positive for HPV are candidates for cancer immunotherapy. Our group has reported promising anti-tumour efficacy in TC-1 murine mouse model, which expresses HPV E7 using different formulations of HPV E7 peptide vaccines, including different adjuvants (Abu Eid et al., 2014) and listeria based E7 vaccine (Mkrtichyan et al., 2014). The anti-tumour therapeutic efficacy of these vaccines was significantly enhanced when combined with PI3k/Akt pathway inhibitors (Abu Eid et al., 2014; 2017; Ahmad et al. 2017). Furthermore, in cervical cancer patients, we showed that Pre-Immature Dendritic Cells pulsed with HPV E7 are capable of inducing specific immune responses against the E7 peptide despite the advanced disease (Rahma et al., 2014). We further showed that combining HPV E7 vaccines with antibodies targeting PD-1 enhance anti-tumour therapeutic efficacy through modulating the tumour microenvironment (Mkrtichyan et al., 2014). It is therefore integral to understand the role of PD-1 and its ligands (PDL-1 and PDL-2) in HNC (Shrimali et al., 2015).
To further the research into HNC immunotherapy and the classification of premalignant lesions, full understanding of the immune response in addition to complete characterization of morphological changes in HPV positive and negative premalignant and malignant lesions is crucial.
Modulators of T Cell Function
Collaboration with Dr Frank Ward, University of Aberdeen
(Funded by Friends of Anchor)
Cancer immunotherapy is among the most important developments in cancer treatment. Despite its impressive successes, the response in patients is often limited and short lived. This is due to factors that hamper the immune response against tumour cells.
Regulatory CD4 T-cells (Tregs) are major contributors to the suppressive tumour microenvironments and immune modulators that selectively mitigate these cells are needed.
The expression of co-inhibitory molecules by tumour cells is another tumour mediated immune escape mechanism that leads to the suppression of effector T-cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors that block the interaction between these co-inhibitory molecules and their receptors have shown remarkable results in enhancing anti-tumour therapeutic efficacy.
Additionally, cancer immunotherapy is hindered by the short-lived anti-tumour effect due to the exhaustion of tumour-specific effector CD8 T-cells. The phenotype and differentiation status of CD8 T-cells have major influences on their function. There is intense interest in manipulating immune modulators to maximise their cytotoxicity and enhance their longevity as part of cancer immunotherapy.
Small molecule inhibitors that target different signalling pathways within T cells have been used successfully to modulate T-cell responses by selectively inhibiting Tregs and/or generating superior antigen-specific CD8 T-cells with enhanced proliferative ability, survival and functional capability (Abu Eid et al. 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). Furthermore, immune checkpoint inhibitors have proven successful in modulating the anti-tumour immune response.
The aim of our work is to identify targets for selective modulation of immune cells while understanding the specific mechanisms that control T cell development and responses. Results will guide combination therapies with different immune modulators as part of cancer treatment.Past Research
The Effect of Oligohydramnios on Tissue and Cellular Morphometry in the Developing Foetal Murine Lung.
Collaboration with Dr Tanbir Najrana and Dr Juan Esteban-Sanchez, the Department of Paediatrics, Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, USA
(Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health Department of Pediatrics; Kilguss Research Core of Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island).
Oligohydramnios resulting from membrane ruptures can cause pulmonary hypoplasia in humans. This has been confirmed experimentally in different animal models and attributed to the decrease in lung distention as result of a decrease in lung fluid in the developing air spaces.
We have characterized a mouse model of pulmonary hypoplasia secondary to severe oligohydramnios and reported significant changes in the differentiation of different cell types, in particular Type I cells, where the level of T1-α (a marker for Type I cells) was significantly reduced in OH both at the mRNA and protein levels. Furthermore, we found that oligohydramnios affects vasculogenesis and apoptosis without altering cell proliferation. Interestingly, we reported a major decrease in developing lung spaces and a significant decrease in cell size and a change in cell shape as a result of oligohydramnios using different descriptors of particle size and shape (Najrana et al., 2016; 2017).
Currently, we are looking into different rescue models for foetal pulmonary hypoplasia using different murine models.
Knowledge Exchange
Fractals in Biology and Medicine. Pecha Kucha Talk. Explorathon 17, Aberdeen, September 2017.
Supervision
My current supervision areas are: Biomedical Sciences, Dentistry.
PhD Students
- Shaymaa Mohammed, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen. Start Date October 2021. Scholarship from Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar.
Project: The applications of tele- and audio-dentistry in patient care and dental education
Role: Lead supervisor
- Sreedevi Unnikrishnan, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen. Start Date February 2021. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Clinical and molecular correlates of response to first line treatment in oral lichen planus
Role: Co-supervisor
- Subarnarekha Chatterji, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen. Start date February 2020. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Understanding the biology of male breast cancer to identify more precise ways to inform clinical decision making for personalised treatment strategies.
Role: Co-supervisor
- Katie Hanna, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen. Start date October 2019. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Precision profiling the breast cancer microenvironment.
Role: Co-supervisor
- Farah Alfatyan, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen. Start date October 2019. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Analysis of intracellular sCTLA-4 and its contribution to intrinsic cell regulation
Role: Co-supervisor
- Badri Risheh, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen. Start date October 2018, submission date November 2022, pass date January 2023. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Modulators of T cell Function in Cancer Immunotherapy
Role: Lead supervisor
- Prarthna Clare, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen. Start date January 2018, submission date October 2021, pass date December 2021. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Morphological and Immunological Characterisation of Head and Neck Cancer
Role: Lead supervisor
- Nadisha Piyarathne, Institute of Dentistry, University of Aberdeen. Start date January 2018, submission date June 2021, pass date July 2022. Elphinstone Scholarship.
Project: Salivary biomarkers and oral cancer risk factors.
Role: Co-supervisor
Funding and Grants
- Cancer Research UK, Early Detection and Diagnosis Project Award: “Integrating Raman spectroscopy and digital pathology as a novel tool for objective grading of oral epithelial dysplasia”. Duration 24 months (February 2023-January 2025). Value: £253,520.38. Role: Principal Investigator.
- University of Aberdeen Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation (KEC) Award: “Preliminary cytokine bead array data to support further development of an anti-sCTLA-4 antibody, 8-B12, as a novel checkpoint inhibitor therapy”. (2022). Value £7,100. Role: Co-investigator.
- Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “The oro-intestinal microbiota as a novel marker for early detection and target for prevention of oral cancer.” Duration 12 months (July 2022-June 2023). Value: £14,981.40. Role: Co-investigator.
- University of Aberdeen Pump-priming for interdisciplinary research initiatives: “Geology Meets Biology”. (2022). Value £9,825. Role: Co-investigator.
- NHS Endowment research grant from NHS Grampian: “Digital pathology as a predictive tool of the response to first line treatment in oral lichen planus.” 20/012. Duration: 24 months (April 2021-March 2023). Value: £11,986.17. Role: Principal Investigator.
- Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “Using Raman Spectroscopy for the early detection of oral cancer”. RS 2020 06. Duration: 21 months (2021-2022). Value: £12,055.75.00. Role: Principal Investigator.
- COVID-19 Research Grant, Medical Research Scotland (MRS): “Methods for reducing the risk of SARS-cov2 associated cytokine storms in COVID-19 patients”. Duration: 6 months (September 2020-March 2021). Value: £19,356. Role: Co-Investigator.
- Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “Targeting the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway to modulate the immune response in COVID-19” Duration: 24 months (2020-2022). Value: £15,000.00. Role: Principal Investigator.
- University of Aberdeen Global Challenge Research Fund Internal Pump Priming Fund: “Geographical Information Systems for mapping oral cancer incidence and high risk behaviours in Sri Lanka”. (2019). Value £10,000. Role: Principal Investigator.
- NHS Endowment research grant from NHS Grampian: “Analysis of soluble CTLA-4 as a novel immune evasion strategy by cancers”. 18/24. Duration: 12 months (April 2019-March 2020). Value: £10,090. Role: Co-Investigator.
- Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “Enhancing the anti-tumour efficacy of BRAF inhibitor therapy with immune modulators”. RS 2018004. Duration: 24 months (2018-2020). Value: £14,469.00. Role: Co-Principal Investigator.
- NHS Endowment research grant from NHS Grampian: “Characterisation of the microscopic and immune profiles of premalignant oral lesions”. 17/042. Duration: 18 months (April 2018-Septemebr 2019). Value: £11,913.10. Role: Principal Investigator.
- Research grant from TENOVUS SCOTLAND: “Characterisation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) expression and function in tumour cells”. G17.11. Duration: 12 months (January 2018-December 2018). Value: £11,991.00. Role: Co-investigator.
- Grant for Research Pilot Studies from Friends of ANCHOR: “Morphological and Immunological Characterization of HPV Positive Head and Neck Cancer and Pre-cancer”. RS17007. Duration: 24 months (2017-2019). Value: £9,719.00. Role: Principal Investigator.
- Research grant from the Deanship of Academic Research at the University of Jordan to fund the research: “Drug Induced Gingival Enlargement: A Clinical, Histological and Molecular Comparison between Different Drugs.” December 2007. Value JD 9,900. Role: Principal Investigator.
- Teaching
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Programmes
- Undergraduate, 3 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 5 year, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 stage, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 stage, September start
- Postgraduate, 3 stage, September start
Courses
- Oral Anatomy and Physiology Course (DE1502)
- Rapid Research Project (PU5916)
Teaching Responsibilities
Contribution to courses at the Dental Institute
Teaching in the BDS course
- Oral Histology (BDS2)
- Lead for Oral Biology
- Student Seminars (BDS5)
Teaching in the Dental Technology course
- Oral Biology (DT1)
- Course coordinator for the Oral Anatomy and Physiology Course (DE1502)
Postgraduate Taught Programmes
- MSc in Special Care Dentistry
- MSc in Advanced Restorative Dental Practice Dissertation (DE5044)
- Project supervisor and Research tutor
Contribution to other programs
Medical course MBChB
- Immunology of Endocrine Disease (Year 2)
- Immunology lectures (Year 3)
Immunology Honours IM4007 Course
- Immune evasion: Cancer
- Scientific paper assessment
Advanced Immunology IM4005
- Current Topics in Immunology
- Regulatory T Cells/ Tumours and Inflammatory Disease
Applied Immunology Human Health IM3502
- Immunity to viruses
Fundamentals of Immunology IM3501
- Regulatory T cells
Microbes, infection and immunity BI25M5
- Evading the immune system
MSc in Immunology and Immunotherapy
- Immunogenetics of cancer
- Assessment of student presentations
MPH Master of Public Health
- Student supervision
- Thesis marking
MSc Global Health and Management
- Marking assessments
Research Tutorials Course (for masters students) MB5518
- Presenter
Fundamentals of Research Design Course for taught MSc Programs (FORD) (PU5027, PU5052)
- Tutor
Industrial Placement (BT5007)
- Tutor
Non-course Teaching Responsibilities
- Regent as part of the regent scheme at the Institute of Dentistry
- Mentor as part of the SUCCESS scheme at the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition
- Publications
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Tooth carving as an adjunct to learning tooth morphology: Students’ perception
Association for Dental Education in Europe (2011), pp. 119-130Contributions to Journals: Abstracts- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0579.2011.0723.x
Dentistry a second time?
European Journal of Dental Education, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. e10-e18Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0579.2010.00666.x
Association between Graduate Entry Dental Students’ Performance in Objective Structured Practical Examination and their First Degrees
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsCan students predict their OSCE performance within a graduate-entry school?
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/eje.12048
Fractal Geometry in the Assessment of Oral Epithelial Dysplasia Grading System
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsStudents’ perception of tooth morphology teaching in a graduate-entry dental course
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0579.2011.0723.x
Fractal Geometry and the Objective System of Prostate Cancer Grading
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsFractal Geometry in the Assessment of Oral Epithelial Dysplasia Grading System
8th European Conference on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology, pp. 1-2Contributions to Conferences: Abstracts- [ONLINE] https://www.impan.pl/~ecmtb11/showabstract.php?id=AbuEid_Rasha
- [ONLINE] Conference Abstracts
- [ONLINE] ECMTB 2011
Inter-examiner agreement in the assessment of tooth carving:: a pilot study
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsObjective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) for Oral Sciences - Views and Performance of Graduate Entry Dental Students
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsUsing Online Dental Case Based Scenarios to Improve Understanding of Basic Sciences: The CLEO Experience
ADEE 36th Annual Meeting 2010Contributions to Conferences: PostersThe Complexity of the Oral Mucosa: A Review of the Use of Fractal Geometry
Control engineering and applied informatics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 10-14Contributions to Journals: ArticlesFractal dimension as a novel measure of prostate cancer grading
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsTwin-pair rete ridge analysis:: a computer-aided method for facilitating objective histopathological distinction between epithelial dysplasia and carcinoma in-situ of the oral mucosa.
Oral Medicine & Pathology, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 89Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCombination of surgery followed by intralesional steroids in treatment of aggressive mandibular giant cell granuloma: A case report
Jordan Medical Journal, vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 231-237Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAssessment of self-medication of antibiotics in a Jordanian population
Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 21-25Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1159/000163041
Fractals in the Estimation of Tissue Complexity:: A Review
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsArchitectural Changes Associated with Ageing of the Normal Oral Buccal Mucosa
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference ProceedingsFifth International Symposium, Fractals in Biology and Medicine, Locarno, March 2008 - Abstracts
Rivista di biologia-Biology forum, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 131-158Contributions to Journals: ArticlesMorphometrical differences between pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia in granular cell tumours and squamous cell carcinomas
Histopathology, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 407-16Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2559.2006.02350.x
Oral Epithelial Dysplasia:: Can Quantifiable Morphological Features Help in the Grading Dilemma?
Contributions to Conferences: Other ContributionsMorphometry of pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia: objective comparison to normal and dysplastic oral mucosae
Analytical and Quantitative Cytology and Histology, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 232-40Contributions to Journals: ArticlesTissue architecture and cell morphology of squamous cell carcinomas compared to granular cell tumours' pseudo-epitheliomatous hyperplasia and to normal oral mucosae
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Conference Proceedings- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7643-7412-8_14
Tissue Architecture in Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Normal Oral Mucosae.
Journal of Dental Research, vol. 83, no. Special issue BContributions to Journals: AbstractsDentinal Dysplasia type I:: Review of literature and report of 2 cases in one family
Cairo Dental Journal, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 199Contributions to Journals: Articles