Department
Pharmaceutical Sciences
Education and Training
2025 Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR, USA.
2024 Certificate in the Effective Teaching Practice Framework, the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), and the American Council on Education (ACE).
2022-2025 Faculty Member (Molecular Oncology), LIVESTRONG Cancer Institute (LCI), Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin.
2020-2025 Research Assistant Professor, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
2015-2020 Research Associate, Cancer Targeted Therapeutic Drug Discovery & Development Program, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
2012-2015 Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas post-Doctoral trainee, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
2012 Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
2002 M.Pharm, Faculty of Pharmacy, Minia University, Minia, Egypt.
1999 B.Pharm, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
Research and Scholarly Interests
I recently transitioned from the College of Pharmacy at The University of Texas at Austin to UAMS to continue and expand my research program. My laboratory integrates chemical biology, enzymology, and systems pharmacology to advance new therapeutics by dissecting ion-channel signaling and cell-state plasticity. We investigate how channel-kinases coordinate ion conductance and kinase signaling to regulate growth, migration, and differentiation. Using pre-steady-state enzymology, quantitative phosphoproteomics, HX-MS, cryo-EM, and CRISPR tiling, we map regulatory mechanisms that couple enzymatic and channel functions to cellular decisions. To connect the mechanism to tissue biology, we employ hiPSC-derived organoids to define how channel-kinase regulation shapes developmental programs, epithelial–mesenchymal transitions, and focal adhesion dynamics.
Building on these insights, our objective is to develop effective combination therapies for triple-negative breast cancer, specifically by pairing selective kinase inhibitors with immune checkpoint blockade to limit EMT-driven plasticity and tumor immune evasion. To achieve this, we evaluate regimens in patient-derived organoids (including PDO–PBMC co-cultures) and complementary in vivo models, aiming to identify responsive biomarker profiles and optimize dosing.
In parallel, we advance host-directed antivirals that inhibit endocytosis-linked viral entry, moving candidates through organoid screening, formulation, PK/PD, and preclinical evaluation. We are also building immune organoids to assess mRNA vaccine responses.
Our goal is to translate mechanisms into medicines by delivering practical tools, validated biomarkers, and promising drug candidates, while cultivating the next generation of multidisciplinary scientists in a collaborative, inclusive environment committed to meaningful impact.
NIH Peer Review & Editorial Appointments
- NIH Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology C (DMPC) Study Section, Cancer Therapeutics (CTH) Review Branch (2024-2025).
- Editorial board member of the Bioorganic Chemistry journal (Elsevier)
- Associate Editor in Molecular and Cellular Oncology Section, Frontiers in Oncology.
Selected Honors and Awards
2016 American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Thematic Best Poster Award- ASBMB meeting, San Diego, CA
2016 American Society of Pharmacology and Exp. Therapeutics Young Scientist Award
2015 The American Association for Cancer Research -Susan G. Komen® Scholar-in-Training Award
2015 American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Young Scientist Award
2014 ASBMB (American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) Postdoctoral Travel Award
2014 The American Chemical Society, Division of Biological Chemistry Travel Grant to attend
ACS national meeting in Dallas, TX
2012 Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Postdoctoral Training Award ($38,000 per year for three years 2012-2015)
2012 The William S. Livingston Outstanding Graduate Student Academic Employee Award recipient, The UT-Austin
2011 The Hutchison Endowment Grad. School Fellowship ($36,000 Award), The UT-Austin Graduate School
2011 The Jaime N. Delgado Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Med. Chem., Col. of Pharm, UT-Austin
2010 College of Pharmacy Academic Note ($10,000 Award), The University of Texas at Austin
Selected Publications
[1] Soleimani M, Duchow M, Goyal R, Somma A, Kaoud TS, Dalby KN, Kowalski J, Eckhardt SG, Van Den Berg C. Transcription factor EB (TFEB) activity increases resistance of TNBC stem cells to metabolic stress. Life Sci Alliance. 2025;8(3). Epub 20250115. doi: 10.26508/lsa.202302259. PubMed PMID: 39814550; PMCID: PMC11735543.
[2] Silva RP, Huang Y, Nguyen AW, Hsieh CL, Olaluwoye OS, Kaoud TS, Wilen RE, Qerqez AN, Park JG, Khalil AM, Azouz LR, Le KC, Bohanon AL, DiVenere AM, Liu Y, Lee AG, Amengor DA, Shoemaker SR, Costello SM, Padlan EA, Marqusee S, Martinez-Sobrido L, Dalby KN, D’Arcy S, McLellan JS, Maynard JA. Identification of a conserved S2 epitope present on spike proteins from all highly pathogenic coronaviruses. Elife. 2023;12. Epub 20230321. doi: 10.7554/eLife.83710. PubMed PMID: 36942851; PMCID: PMC10030117.
[3] Zeng L±, Kaoud TS±, Zamora-Olivares D, Bohanon AL, Li Y, Pridgen JR, Ekpo YE, Zhuang DL, Nye JR, Telles M, Winkler M, Rivera S, Marini F, Dalby KN, Anslyn EV. Multiplexing the Quantitation of MAP Kinase Activities Using Differential Sensing. J Am Chem Soc. 2022;144(9):4017-25. Epub 20220223. doi: 10.1021/jacs.1c12757. PubMed PMID: 35195411.
[4] Soleimani M, Somma A, Kaoud T, Goyal R, Bustamante J, Wylie DC, Holay N, Looney A, Giri U, Triplett T, Dalby K, Kowalski J, Eckhardt SG, Van Den Berg C. Covalent JNK Inhibitor, JNK-IN-8, Suppresses Tumor Growth in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer by Activating TFEB- and TFE3-Mediated Lysosome Biogenesis and Autophagy. Mol Cancer Ther. 2022;21(10):1547-60. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-21-1044. PubMed PMID: 35977156.
[5] Sammons RM, Bohanon AL, Kowtha A, Dejong A, Cho EJ, Kaoud TS*, Dalby KN. High-Throughput Assay for Identifying Diverse Antagonists of the Binding Interaction between the ACE2 Receptor and the Dynamic Spike Proteins of SARS-CoV-2. ACS Infect Dis. 2022;8(11):2259-70. Epub 20221031. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.2c00297. PubMed PMID: 36315931; PMCID: PMC9673917.
[6] Ramadan M, Y AMME, Aly AA, Abdel-Aziz M, Fathy HM, Brown AB, Pridgen JR, Dalby KN, Kaoud TS*. Development of 2′-aminospiro [pyrano[3,2-c]quinoline]-3′-carbonitrile derivatives as non-ATP competitive Src kinase inhibitors that suppress breast cancer cell migration and proliferation. Bioorg Chem. 2021;116:105344. Epub 20210920. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2021.105344. PubMed PMID: 34598088.
[7] Javanmardi K, Chou CW, Terrace CI, Annapareddy A, Kaoud TS, Guo Q, Lutgens J, Zorkic H, Horton AP, Gardner EC, Nguyen G, Boutz DR, Goike J, Voss WN, Kuo HC, Dalby KN, Gollihar JD, Finkelstein IJ. Rapid characterization of spike variants via mammalian cell surface display. Mol Cell. 2021;81(24):5099-111 e8. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2021.11.024. PubMed PMID: 34919820; PMCID: PMC8675084.
[8] Kaoud TS, Mohassab AM, Hassan HA, Yan C, Van Ravenstein SX, Abdelhamid D, Dalby KN, Abdel-Aziz M. NO-releasing STAT3 inhibitors suppress BRAF-mutant melanoma growth. Eur J Med Chem. 2020;186:111885. Epub 20191114. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.111885. PubMed PMID: 31784187.
[9] Perry NA, Kaoud TS, Ortega OO, Kaya AI, Marcus DJ, Pleinis JM, Berndt S, Chen Q, Zhan X, Dalby KN, Lopez CF, Iverson TM, Gurevich VV. Arrestin-3 scaffolding of the JNK3 cascade suggests a mechanism for signal amplification. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2019;116(3):810-5. Epub 20181227. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1819230116. PubMed PMID: 30591558; PMCID: PMC6338856.
[10] Kaoud TS, Johnson WH, Ebelt ND, Piserchio A, Zamora-Olivares D, Van Ravenstein SX, Pridgen JR, Edupuganti R, Sammons R, Cano M, Warthaka M, Harger M, Tavares CDJ, Park J, Radwan MF, Ren P, Anslyn EV, Tsai KY, Ghose R, Dalby KN. Modulating multi-functional ERK complexes by covalent targeting of a recruitment site in vivo. Nat Commun. 2019;10(1):5232. Epub 20191119. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12996-8. PubMed PMID: 31745079; PMCID: PMC6863825.
[11] Hassan AA, Aly AA, Mohamed NK, El Shaieb KM, Makhlouf MM, Abdelhafez EMN, Brase S, Nieger M, Dalby KN, Kaoud TS*. Design, synthesis, and DNA interaction studies of furo-imidazo[3.3.3]propellane derivatives: Potential anticancer agents. Bioorg Chem. 2019;85:585-99. Epub 20190213. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2019.02.027. PubMed PMID: 30878891; PMCID: PMC6543821.
[12] Aly AA, El-Sheref EM, Bakheet MEM, Mourad MAE, Brase S, Ibrahim MAA, Nieger M, Garvalov BK, Dalby KN, Kaoud TS*. Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of fused naphthofuro[3,2-c] quinoline-6,7,12-triones and pyrano[3,2-c]quinoline-6,7,8,13-tetraones derivatives as ERK inhibitors with efficacy in BRAF-mutant melanoma. Bioorg Chem. 2019;82:290-305. Epub 20181023. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2018.10.044. PubMed PMID: 30396063; PMCID: PMC6543826.
[13] Guo HF, Tsai CL, Terajima M, Tan X, Banerjee P, Miller MD, Liu X, Yu J, Byemerwa J, Alvarado S, Kaoud TS, Dalby KN, Bota-Rabassedas N, Chen Y, Yamauchi M, Tainer JA, Phillips GN, Jr., Kurie JM. Pro-metastatic collagen lysyl hydroxylase dimer assemblies stabilized by Fe(2+)-binding. Nat Commun. 2018;9(1):512. Epub 20180206. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-02859-z. PubMed PMID: 29410444; PMCID: PMC5802723.
[14] Xie X, Kaoud TS, Edupuganti R, Zhang T, Kogawa T, Zhao Y, Chauhan GB, Giannoukos DN, Qi Y, Tripathy D, Wang J, Gray NS, Dalby KN, Bartholomeusz C, Ueno NT. c-Jun N-terminal kinase promotes stem cell phenotype in triple-negative breast cancer through upregulation of Notch1 via activation of c-Jun. Oncogene. 2017;36(18):2599-608. Epub 20161212. doi: 10.1038/onc.2016.417. PubMed PMID: 27941886; PMCID: PMC6116358.
[15] Piserchio A, Warthaka M, Kaoud TS, Callaway K, Dalby KN, Ghose R. Local destabilization, rigid body, and fuzzy docking facilitate the phosphorylation of the transcription factor Ets-1 by the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK2. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2017;114(31):E6287-E96. Epub 20170717. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1702973114. PubMed PMID: 28716922; PMCID: PMC5547609.
[16] Mohassab AM, Hassan HA, Abdelhamid D, Abdel-Aziz M, Dalby KN, Kaoud TS*. Novel quinoline incorporating 1,2,4-triazole/oxime hybrids: Synthesis, molecular docking, anti-inflammatory, COX inhibition, ulceroginicity and histopathological investigations. Bioorg Chem. 2017;75:242-59. Epub 20170930. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2017.09.018. PubMed PMID: 29032325.
[17] Zamora-Olivares D, Kaoud TS, Jose J, Ellington A, Dalby KN, Anslyn EV. Differential sensing of MAP kinases using SOX-peptides. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2014;53(51):14064-8. Epub 20141015. doi: 10.1002/anie.201408256. PubMed PMID: 25319433.
[18] Radwan MF, Dalby KN, Kaoud TS*. Propyphenazone-based analogues as prodrugs and selective cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors. ACS Med Chem Lett. 2014;5(9):983-8. Epub 20140623. doi: 10.1021/ml500156v. PubMed PMID: 25221653; PMCID: PMC4160749.
[19] Abuo-Rahma Gel D, Abdel-Aziz M, Farag NA, Kaoud TS*. Novel 1-[4-(Aminosulfonyl)phenyl]-1H-1,2,4-triazole derivatives with remarkable selective COX-2 inhibition: design, synthesis, molecular docking, anti-inflammatory and ulcerogenicity studies. Eur J Med Chem. 2014;83:398-408. Epub 20140624. doi: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2014.06.049. PubMed PMID: 24983538.
[20] Zamora-Olivares D, Kaoud TS, Dalby KN, Anslyn EV. In-situ generation of differential sensors that fingerprint kinases and the cellular response to their expression. J Am Chem Soc. 2013;135(39):14814-20. Epub 20130918. doi: 10.1021/ja407397z. PubMed PMID: 23991633; PMCID: PMC3846390.
± Equal First Author, *Corresponding Author