Dr. Mona Allouba is a post-doctoral researcher and manager of the Genetics and Genomics unit at Aswan Heart Centre (AHC). She completed her PhD studies in Cardiovascular Clinical Research Medicine at Imperial College London in collaboration with AHC in 2020. Her research focuses on identifying the genetic determinants of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy in the Egyptian population with the aim to improve diagnosis, disease management and potentially treatment of this life-threatening disease.

Marina Sous is the Scientific Project Manager of the Life Sciences Department at the Aswan Heart Centre – Magdi Yacoub Foundation (MYF). She completed her Bachelor of Science from the American University in Cairo with a major in Biology. In 2017, she obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy Degree (PharmD) from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) with highest honors. Dr. Sous has gained valuable knowledge and experience as a pharmacist from working in different pharmacy settings. Her current role mainly focuses on population study management (The Ballana Heart Study), pulmonary hypertension clinical trial management. She is currently completing her Master of Public Health (MPH) at Johns Hopkins University. Her field of interest is the examination of cardiovascular disease prevalence & epidemiology, strategies for disease prevention and development of awareness campaigns to promote cardiovascular health.

Yasmine Aguib holds a doctoral degree in molecular biotechnology and molecular medicine from the Technische Universität München (Germany). Currently she is co-Director of the Research Centre at Magdi Yacoub Foundation (Egypt), hon. senior research fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute (Imperial College London -UK) and is serving as member of the MYF management board. Aguib is Co-PI in the Foundation Leducq Transatlantic Networks of Excellence for ‘Redox Regulation of Cardiomyocyte Renewal’. In the frame of the German Excellence Initiative she was appointed scientific consultant to the TUM president in the fields of life sciences and international strategic alliances where she contributed to the establishment of the TUM Global Strategy and the EuroTech Universities Alliance. She is a scientific board member of the newly launched Egypt Genome Project and founding member of the GPx Network ( funded by the DAAD in the 2019), and the Epi/Genomic Medicine and Health Equity Autumn School. Her current work focuses on understanding the role of molecular determinants of heart disease, its etiology and manifestation in the Egyptian and North African population and on contributing to the advancement of genomic CV medicine in Africa and globally.

Dr. Ayman is a Senior Research Associate and "Cell and Tissue Biology Unit" Manager at Aswan Heart Centre - Magdi Yacoub Foundation. He is also an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science, Cairo University. In 2011, he was granted his master’s degree from the Faculty of Science, Cairo University on Telomerase activity in Human breast cancer biology, and in 2013, he Joined Dr. Torsten Stein Lab at Glasgow University, Scotland, UK, for his PhD studies on Extracellular matrix remodeling in mammary gland and Breast Cancer invasion and metastasis. Dr. Ayman then joined Prof. Magdi Yacoub's lab in 2016 for his Postdoc studies to investigate Extracellular Matrix remodeling in cardiovascular pathologies in addition to his studies on using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as an in vitro model for inherited cardiac conditions such as Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. In 2019, he was awarded a 1yr fellowship at Dr. Heather Machado’s laboratory at the school of Medicine, Tulane University, LA, USA, to train on novel methodologies for ECM studies in biological systems and employ "matrisome" signature in molecular diagnostics. His current research at Aswan Heart Centre focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms, and ECM remodeling drivers in cardiac and extra cardiac tissues of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Heart Failure, to identify novel and personalized molecular diagnostic tools and therapeutics.

Dr. Sarah Halawa is a post-doctoral researcher and manager of the Cardiovascular Bioinformatics Unit at Magdi Yacoub Aswan Heart Centre (Magdi Yacoub Heart Foundation) (AHC). She completed her PhD in Applied Sciences and Engineering with a specialization in Biotechnology focused on data science and bioinformatics in December 2020 as a joint collaboration between the American University in Cairo (AUC) and AHC. Her PhD focused on profiling genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in human aortic and mitral valves for which she has been awarded the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship in 2019. She obtained her MSc in Physics in 2014 at AUC and her BSc in Electronics Engineering from AUC with a minor in Mathematics in 2011. Her multidisciplinary background enables her to work with highly qualified teams on challenging interdisciplinary projects that primarily focus on cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) specific to the Egyptian population. In addition to expanding on her PhD work, she currently works on many projects with a focus on translational bioinformatics and the integration of bioinformatic techniques into genetic and clinical research to improve health outcomes for patients.