ASMA AMLEH
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY

Developing a more effective screening test for ovarian cancer

The Inspiration

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer. The symptoms are ambiguous, the disease has a high worldwide rate of mortality and morbidity, and the majority of women aren't diagnosed until the disease has reached its last stages. Yet the screening tests are limited, especially at the early stages. So we need to find new approaches to early diagnosis. With breast cancer, there's a lot of research and data available, and survival rates are higher. There is a lot to be done with ovarian cancer.

8th most common CANCER among women WORLDWIDE

The Process

This is a two-year research program, supported by AUC's Bartlett Fund for Critical Challenges. My initial research in this area began at AUC in September 2013 as part of a collaborative project with a researcher from Canada. After winning the Bartlett grant, I became the principal investigator, along with co-investigator Terri Ginsberg, assistant professor of film in AUC's Department of the Arts, for an interdisciplinary team that includes graduate and undergraduate students at AUC, a gynecologist from Mansoura University, a biostatistician in AUC's Department of Biology and a filmmaking instructor in AUC's Film Program. We're collecting and analyzing specimens from both healthy and diseased patients, and extracting RNA and sending them to be sequenced. At the end of the day, diseases affect gene expression. So we need to understand the specific expressions that indicate ovarian cancer.

5th most common CANCER among EGYPTIAN women

The IMPACT

Our goal is to develop a screening method to detect ovarian cancer in its earliest stages. Our method would be cost-effective, noninvasive -- based on a blood sample -- and derived from microRNA sequencing, the most specific and sensitive data marker available. This work is urgently needed. The impact would be immediate and powerful.

The Next Steps

Part of our project is to empower women with the knowledge that regular checks for ovarian cancer are crucial. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women in Egypt are hesitant to discuss ovarian cancer. We want to normalize that conversation, so we're making a video to spread knowledge about ovarian cancer. Research is about discovery, but it's also about raising awareness.

The Future

This is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project, where researchers from around the world bring their own expertise to the table. At AUC, we have a smart, hard-working research team, supported by all the resources and facilities we need: dedicated labs for cell culture, genomics and bioinformatics; technological support; an Academic Data Center and a tremendous library. By working together, we produce something beautiful and necessary.

Thanks to all AUC alumni who shared their advice on the Facebook group

Galal Zaki '68: "The future is not the way it used to be. Practice and academia complement each other. Innovate or evaporate."

Cherif Ramsis '74: "You never know where your career will take you. Fate has its way. Enjoy the ride, and don't try to fight fate."

Djehanne Massabky Mazhar '75, '79: "You are lucky to have such an institution, so make the best of it. Education stays with you forever."

Soha Farouk Kamal '88: "While you pursue success, don't forget to live."

Omar G. Barazi '92: "Follow your passion and build on it. Learn it. Make it your life. Make it your career. Do what you love, and you won't have to work a single day."

Nahla Mesbah '92, '10: "Make sure you get involved in extracurricular activities. They enrich your life and help build your character. Don't fall into the labeling trap. Most 'tough graders' I have taken courses with provided the best teaching experiences I've had. Remember to enjoy your interactions with fellow students. [AUC] is where many of us made lifelong friends."

Heba AbouRabia '93, '14: "Be proud of your learning experience at AUC. It was and still is the best in Egypt."

Fadi Habib '94, DPL '99: "GPA is important, but it should be number 10 on the list:

1. Go to all trips and parties.

2. Enroll in as many clubs as you can.

3. Be active, not just a silent member of clubs and associations.

4. Make a lot of friends, and enjoy their friendship.

5. Participate in a student exchange program for a summer or semester.

6. Learn to play music.

7. Play a few sports. Choose one sport, and play lots of it.

8. Learn stuff. Don't just go for grades.

9. Enjoy and relax. It doesn't matter how stressful you think it is. It is your best time on Earth.

10. GPA."

Shima Barakat '95, '98: "Learn to work with as many different people as you can. Truly discover what it means to be a good person to be around. Your time at AUC is when you discover yourself and sow the seeds to be a global citizen who contributes to the world rather than expect it to deliver. The world/society doesn't owe you anything. You owe it everything."

Doaa Bashanfar '96: "Change is the only stable thing in life. So be agile to absorb it, move, achieve and improve."

Maha Saleh '02: "Enjoy the soft Core courses. You will cherish this information later on -- adding up to your general knowledge, overall skills and social intelligence."

Shady Mohamed Zayat '04: "[Take part in] internship programs. ... If you can find a part-time job, go for it -- because if you think that only being an AUCian will help you, [then] you are dreaming."

Karim Salem '04: "Enjoy what you are doing to the maximum. These days won't come back. Your bachelor's degree on its own is not enough to help you realize your dreams. The experience and hard work will. Focus on getting as much practical work experience as you can."

Mia Malak '11: "Enjoy your undergraduate years. Enjoy learning freely. Enjoy discovering. Enjoy making new, lasting friendships. Enjoy doing new things. Explore; find yourself; learn about yourself and all that you can do. It's the phase where you can still be a kid with the mind and body of an adult. Be silly; be serious; be funny; be curious.

Make use of what the University offers you. You can't imagine the freedom that a liberal arts education gives you. Make use of the library. We've got one of the best libraries. Participate in student activities. Learn. Enjoy your classes."

Mona Al-Abiad '89, '10: "Go to all trips and events. Make more and more friends. Takes courses in music, theatre and dancing. Enjoy the experience to the maximum. Go to your professors all the time. Talk to them, and always ask for their help and advice."

Sherine Samir '00: "Study what you love and not what others want. Enjoy your life at AUC because the world is different outside of it."

Sarah Badreldin '02: "Accept and respect other cultures as you come across them."

To a student coming fresh from an American college to A.U.C., the change is not so tremendous as it might seem. Especially do the outward things; athletics on the field, assembly every morning, the extra-curricular activities of the Review, clubs and orchestra, make one feel at home.

But among the greatest differences which I find between A.U.C. and my college at home is the feeling of unusual co-operation between student and teacher. With a small number enrolled in the school, the classes are small enough for each student to feel himself an individual. In contrast to some lecture courses given to one hundred and seventy five students in my home college, to be in a class where each one of the six is doing independent, individual work, is stimulating.

After only three weeks of school, I'm more than ever convinced that if more students would make as a part of their education a transfer into the schools or educational systems of another country, there would be as a result, a marvelous decrease in some of the most stupid of race prejudice.

The advantages which every student in A.U.C. has, in coming in contact with students of other races and creeds, is to me, marvelous, For in my college, with a comparatively small enrollment of sixteen hundred, we are most of us from American homes of the same type.

Cairo in itself is proving to be so fascinating a place just in which to live, that I regret that there is not more time to see things and go various places. To a Westerner new to the near east, there is an ever present thrill in strolling into a darkened Coptic Church, exploring odd corners of the Mouski, seeing strange sight near the tombs of the Mamelukes, visiting in an Egyptian home, or perhaps just trying to get about town, and getting consistently lost, because the only two Arabic words to one's credit are "malesh" and "saida," which certainly are not helpful in getting home.

After only three weeks of school, I'm more than ever convinced that if more students would make as a part of their education a transfer into the schools or educational systems of another country, there would be as a result, a marvelous decrease in some of the most stupid of race prejudice. We Americans, who are here in Egypt, a foreign country to us, and the Egyptian students who are studying here under a system foreign to their own, are both gaining this sort of exchange education. It seems to me that there is unusual value in it. I can only add that the extreme courtesy and friendliness with which all of us co-eds have been treated is another thing which makes going to school in the A.U.C. a profit and a pleasure to me.

-- I.W.

Coming back to a place after years away can be a deeply emotional experience. For Waleed Alasad '91, who studied mechanical engineering at AUC and is now the CEO of NAPESCO Petroleum, visiting Ewart Memorial Hall in the spring of 2024 for a memorial event triggered strong feelings of nostalgia. After the service, he went home and wrote the following in honor of the space and the memories it holds.

Read the original Arabic version on Substack.

I still remember the summer morning in July nearly four decades ago when I stepped into Ewart Memorial Hall to sit for the aptitude test required for admission to AUC. That grand hall -- with its vast space between the seats, the ceiling and the stage adorned with European Rococo ornaments -- bears an inscription in Latin that seemed to have been crafted by Egyptian calligraphers trained in Ottoman script, merging the two worlds. It read:

"Let knowledge grow from more to more, but more of reverence in us dwell."

Ewart Hall, whose construction was funded in the 1920s by a granddaughter of William Dana Ewart -- the American inventor of the chain belt -- became a small homeland for us Sudanese students while we were far from our country. Our connection to it was through the Sudanese Students Association at AUC, an active organization and close-knit family centered around identity. The hall often hosted rehearsals for our choral group, and its majestic walls echoed with our pentatonic scale as we sang and learned who "Azza" was, as "Azza" in our poetry and songs means Sudan:

"Azza, I have not forsaken the land of beauty,

Nor have I sought a substitute, none but perfection.

My heart never swayed to another.

Embrace me with your right hand, for I lie resting on your left."

The hall's Western murals would smile back at us, replying salaamat (greetings) after each line.

The 1980s were full of both sorrow and splendor. What more can be said of those times?

Ewart Hall couldn't close the chapter of the 1980s without adding the crown jewel of that era: the Akad El-Galad band.

In the hall, we organized a grand concert for the band, inviting Sudanese students from all the universities. The aisles were packed after the seats were filled, and Sheikh Rihan Street overflowed with people of dark skin from every direction, their hearts longing for the words of Mohamed Taha Al Gaddal, Amal Dunqul and Al-Madah Al-Makkawi. The concert began, and the hall erupted. The voices of the students overpowered the band, chanting.

The hall reciprocated our enthusiasm with its timeless word engraved above the stage: "Reverence."

Today, after all those decades have passed, after calendar pages have fluttered away, after the disappearance of newspaper vendors, after Koshary El-Tahrir turned into a franchise, after the crowds vanished from Tahrir Square and after the unruly growth of a McDonald's branch across from the green gate on Mohamed Mahmoud Street -- I return to enter Ewart Hall, this time to attend a memorial event for the dean of Sudanese journalists, Mahjoub Mohamed Salih.

I return to find Ewart Hall unchanged, welcoming us as always, with the same distinctive scent. I can almost hear its sigh of reproach for our long absence, for the absence of the echoes of our pentatonic songs from its walls all this time.

The doors of the Main Campus opened from both sides, and the guests filed in with commendable order, organized for a memorial worthy of that towering figure who departed just as our bodies, too, were forced to leave:

"Embrace me with your right hand, for I lie resting on your left."

It was truly a remarkable evening, filled with the essence of home, interspersed with profound words from Sudanese and foreign journalists, from the family of the late Mahjoub, and especially that tender speech from his granddaughter.

Ewart Hall gave us today the same echo we had known years ago as the audience sang for Sudan along with the band to the words of the late Abdul Kareem Al-Kabli:

We shall rejoice with our children and sing,

To our origin, our beginning.

Oh, the sweetness of the stage of our youth,

And our memories, our longing."

Ewart Memorial Hall, I dedicate this to you on behalf of all the Sudanese you sheltered in their exile. In my heart, after the music fades and the guests leave, I return to you in secret to offer the last refrain as a toast to you and to those beautiful years. I sing for you:

Oh, the sweetness of the stage of our youth,

And our memories, our longing.

By Hadeel Soliman

The gazelle is a lean, strong, graceful and capable being -- a great representation of 22-year-old Egyptian squash player Hania El Hammamy.

Though appearing sweet and calm, El Hammamy is merciless on the court. After many triumphs in her career as a junior squash player, she went pro and her talent was quickly recognized on a global scale. She is now third worldwide in the Professional Squash Association Women's World Rankings, earning her iconic nickname, the gazelle, due to her wide and fast stride.

As if a switch had been flipped, El Hammamy's gentle exterior quickly faded as we began discussing her squash career. "I am very greedy. Number three isn't where I belong. I can do better," she said.

Though not pleased with her ranking, the gazelle still acknowledges her numerous achievements. She notably remembers a match she won at 17 years old, which lifted her spirits and reinforced her self-confidence. "I played against Nicol David, who had previously been number one for nine consecutive years, so no one dared to go near her," she recalled. "When I won that match, I was very happy. My young age made the victory that much sweeter."

While climbing the global rankings, El Hammamy also challenges gender norms faced by female athletes. "I'm very aggressive on the court, and sometimes people tell me that my attitude is too much for a woman," she said.

The comments don't affect her. At a press conference, El Hammamy handled such challenges and criticism from reporters with grace -- as would any confident athlete. When asked if she felt bad for playing against her friend in a match, she replied sternly: "In individual sports, if you think like that, you shouldn't even be competing. This is our work."

Determined, hungry for victory, confident and skillful -- El Hammamy possesses all these skills that we love to see in athletes. However, as a woman, El Hammamy is frustrated by the difference in treatment she gets from the media and fans alike. "A male player and I may be featured in the same magazine, but he will be the one placed on the front page even though I actually have higher rankings than he does," she said.

El Hammamy's message to all young athletes: "You'll never be at your peak forever. There will be ups and downs, but giving up is not an option."

Despite the challenges on and off the court, the Egyptian champion remains unfazed and confident because she only has her eyes on one thing: being number one.

Hadeel Soliman is a communication and media arts junior at AUC.

AUC Couples
 

"Mohamed Safwat and I met on campus as freshmen in the fall of 1994. He proposed to me one beautiful summer day at the Falaki building. We got engaged in 1998, a few months after our June 1998 commencement, and we got married in July 2000. We are blessed to be best friends, lovers and parents to two crazy kids and two even crazier cats."

-- Aliaa M. Abaza '98

Memorabilia

"AUC used the Channel, a paper for circulation that included all important information for students. We did not have emails."

-- Mona Al-Abiad '89, '10

Trips
 

"One of the most famous trips at the University was the Luxor and Aswan trip, which always took place between the two-semester recess. Taking the train for 12 hours and trying to visit all the attractions in Luxor and Aswan in five days. Always fun, and memories to hold forever."

-- Nabil Arar '86
 

Sports
 

"Madame Azhar was a fighter with a huge heart. She always used to encourage us to train when we were at the changing rooms. ... May she rest in peace."

-- Merit Al-Sayed '01

Lifelong learning

"I am a proud AUCian because the kind and quality of education we get prepares us for life like no other place. The life skills we learned have shaped our personalities."

-- Doha Shawki '95, '98

Groups

"Thick and thin applies to friendship, not only to marriage. We studied together, stood by each other during heartaches, were together at graduation, attended each other's weddings, watched our kids grow and play with each other, stood by each other during difficult times, attended our children's weddings and will grow old together."

-- Hanan Shahin '87, '97 
 

Alumni

"AUC makes us proud everywhere, all the time. Every penny was worth it. We pose as pearls of a necklace, scattered yet united by everything genuine."

-- Lamya Ramadan '87, '01 
 

Performances

"Every performance, every song, every corner of Ewart Hall speak so many memories. So many precious moments with very special individuals whom I call friends for life. No matter how near or rather how far, you are all engraved in my heart. RIP Larry, our mentor and our music keeper. You will never be forgotten! Miss you all so much. Osiris Singers forever."
 

-- Mariam Farag '99 
 

Students on Campus

Classrooms

Athletics

Library

The Platform

Gym

Group Study

Food Outlets

Swimming

Class Photo

International Day

Commencement

Campus Hangouts
 

Diversity has always been a cornerstone of AUC since its founding. Students of all backgrounds cherish the intercultural exchange and social interaction at the University, not just in the classroom, but in every part of campus.

Library

The AUC Library started off as a small reading room in 1922. In the 1950s, upon the recommendation of then President Raymond F. McLain and with consent from the Weyerhaeuser family, Hill House no longer served as a student dormitory and was renovated to become a modern library. In 1982, the Greek Campus Library was completed. Today, the library is at the center of AUC's 260-acre campus in New Cairo and houses the largest English-language academic collection in Egypt.

Miss AUC

The Miss AUC competition, which began in the early 1930s, was an annual campus tradition crowning the "all-round campus girl." At the beginning, the winner was chosen solely based on the amount of votes she collected, but by the 1970s, academic achievement and campus activities were considered too. The coronation ceremony, performed by the previous year's winner, was traditionally followed by a party in the Fountain Area, where the president had the first dance with Miss AUC.

Classes
 

Initially, AUC was intended to be both a preparatory school and a University. The preparatory school opened in October 1920 with 142 students in two classes that were equivalent to the last two years of an American high school. The first diplomas issued were junior college-level certificates given to 20 students in 1923. AUC enrolled its first female student in 1928, the same year in which the first class graduated, with one Bachelor of Science and two Bachelor of Arts degrees awarded. The first master's degree was awarded in 1950. 
 

Sports
 

Since its early years, AUC placed an emphasis on athletics and physical training as part of the curriculum to enhance student personalities by building sportsmanship and teamwork. This was uncommon in the Middle East at the time, since people did not correlate sports with a college or university. Despite criticism, students, all males in the early 1920s, were required to take two hours of athletics per week. As they became more skilled, they created a pyramid by standing on each other's shoulders -- an AUC landmark. Each athletic season ended with Sports Day, which began in 1921. 
 

Recovering vision to the blind, restoring motor function to people with disabilities -- what's the science behind it all? Seif Eldawlatly, associate professor of computer science and engineering, is unlocking new possibilities for people with disabilities and others through his research in the futuristic field of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).

Now, after 18 years of work in the field, Eldawlatly is helping AUC develop its expertise in BCIs and exploring opportunities to improve everyone's lives. "This field is relatively new, and not many people in Egypt or the region actually work in this research area," he says.

Associate Professor Seif Eldawlatly is introducing the cutting-edge field of brain-computer interfaces to AUC

Technological Trajectory

Eldawlatly's work has evolved alongside the technology. Visual prosthetics work by recreating signals through the brain via implanted electrodes. "Our eyes are almost like a camera taking a picture of what we see, but the actual vision and perception take place in the brain. We understand what we see through the process in our brains," he says. So when the eye malfunctions or stops working due to disease, Eldawlatly says it is possible to control the brain itself by artificially providing the input that was supposed to come from the eye.

A chip attached to wires acting as 30-some electrodes could be implanted in the brain, receiving inputs from an external camera attached to glasses. "That's what the field of visual prosthetics is: We try to use artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver electrical pulses to certain locations in the brain related to vision. If we send the right signals to these locations, people could see again, at least partially," he says.

In his research to supplant motor disabilities, Eldawlatly has mostly used electroencephalogram (EEG) recording headsets, a non-invasive technology that records brain activity through electrical signals picked up by small sensors attached to the scalp.

A subject in Eldawlatly's study wears an EEG headset, photo courtesy of Seif Eldawlatly

In one of Eldawlatly's experiments, people with disabilities were able to write words by selecting letters separated by flickering boxes of varying paces, each of which would elicit a different electrical pulse in the brain.

Once the EEG headset picked up the electrical signals using AI, the computer would produce the correct letter, allowing the person to write using only their brain. In an adjacent project, the EEG detected a spike when the desired character was displayed, providing an alternative system to the flickering boxes. Patients were able to move their wheelchairs using the same technology.

BCI can also be used to enhance daily life for those without disabilities or diseases. Eldawlatly shared the example of an AUC senior project he supervised that was conducted in collaboration with Siemens, enabling emergency braking in vehicles based on brain signals.

"When an emergency-braking situation happens, such as a car in front of us suddenly stopping, many people panic, for say 100 milliseconds, but their brain detects that they need to stop the car even if they don't press the brakes. They hesitate for a moment, and because

of that, an accident might happen," he explains. By detecting the brain pattern corresponding to emergency braking, the car can be stopped, avoiding the accident.

Additionally, Eldawlatly has been developing AI techniques to diagnose the neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a fatal illness that is usually diagnosed in the later stages. With machine learning algorithms, Eldawlatly's team is working on identifying abnormal patterns in signals from the spinal cord. "If we can diagnose the disease early on, we can start administering drugs to slow its progress, elongating the life of the patient and preventing them from losing all function," he says.

Field of the Future

Much of Eldawlatly's work may sound aspirational and futuristic, far off from the world we live in now. But BCI is already being used around the world, and there are companies already performing chip implantations in the brains of paralyzed patients seeking mobility, or a simulation of mobility. And while Eldawlatly has not worked on invasive procedures outside of animal testing, he believes that the future lies in both invasive BCI, implemented through the surgical insertion of electrodes in the brain, and noninvasive BCI, through external apparatuses such as EEGs.

This is why he emphasizes the need for strict ethical guidelines around BCI practices. Regarding invasive techniques, Eldawlatly says, "All the work being done in this field of research has to follow strict ethical guidelines. Otherwise, if it falls into the wrong hands, the technology might cause issues. However, the good news is that patients have to undergo surgery first, so they have to agree to it."

"We deliver electrical pulses to certain locations in the brain related to vision. If we send the right signals to these locations, people can see again, at least partially."

He added that, whether surgically invasive or not, brain monitoring raises concerns of privacy, so ethics are always a priority. "In both cases, we're getting information about what the brain is trying to do, and the brain, not our face or fingerprint, is the true representation of our identity. So the data should not be used for anything that the subject does not approve," Eldawlatly says.

Though he works in data analysis and not in hardware development, Eldawlatly says that the technology can soon become accessible, with EEG headsets already available at varying price ranges. "Once the industry turns the research into a product, it becomes a reality. It becomes something that everyone is using," he says, comparing BCI to AI, which was not widely known until ChatGPT became publicly accessible -- even though researchers had been developing AI technology for the past century. "Now everyone is using AI, so the same thing might happen in brain-computer interfaces," he says.

By Nahla El Gendy

Data science is a new major at AUC -- the first of its kind in Egypt and the Arab world

The first of its kind in Egypt and the Arab world, AUC's undergraduate data science program began in Fall 2019, leading to a Bachelor of Science in data science.

"The advancement of computers and communication technologies has given rise to the availability of massive and complex data from the real world," said Ali Hadi, distinguished University professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial science. "Datasets contain a wealth of knowledge. Data science is the science of extracting knowledge from data."

Data science is a new interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field. Being a data scientist requires an integrated skill set spanning mathematics, probability, statistics, machine learning, computational science and programming languages, as well as a good understanding of some real-world problem formulation and effective solutions.

A data scientist is a professional who is able to collect the different types and sizes of data -- which come in big volumes -- in a timely and accurate manner, while analyzing this data, solving the problems associated with it and transforming it into useful knowledge. decision makers then use this knowledge to make evidence-based scientific decisions. "In that way, data scientists can be thought of as the link or liaison between the data and decision makers in different fields," said Hadi.

Data science applies to almost every entity in various fields, including national and multinational communication and information technology companies, banks and other financial institutions, and investment companies. it is a rapidly growing field due to the availability of huge and complex real-world data. According to the 2019 CareerCast Jobs rated report, a data scientist is ranked as the top job in the United States in terms of salary, work environment, stress and growth. Linkedin also ranked a data scientist as the Most Promising Job in the United States in 2019.

"Data science is also known as data mining," said Hadi. "Data is like a mine, and the knowledge contained in the data is like the rich minerals of the mine. Failure to retrieve and make sense of the data is like leaving a mine unexplored or misidentifying a diamond for a piece of coal -- hence the term data mining, which preceded the term data science."

The data science program at AUC is a joint venture between the Department of Mathematics and Actuarial science and the department of Computer science and Engineering. "What distinguishes our data science major is AUC's liberal arts program, which is required by all students in all majors," said Hadi. "This enables us to produce well-rounded graduates in the field."

"Data science is the major of the future," said iman Yehia, computer science junior who took the Fundamentals of Data Science course taught by Hadi. "If you study it, you can easily change the world. to me, data science is a mindset."

Freshman Mahmoud Waly, another student in the course, also noted, "As this course was the first of its kind, I didn't know what to expect, but to say the least, I enjoyed every class I attended."